The Archaeology Channel Tours
The Archaeology Channel Tours is a program set apart from others by our commitment to storytelling and expert guidance. We believe that a tour should be far more than a photo-op or checking off a bucket list. For us, a tour is an opportunity to perform our mission to tell the human story, in this case by bringing people to the real sites where history took place. We like to embed the background in the tour process, so each destination represents an episode in the historic timeline and has a comfortable place in the temporal, cultural and environmental context. We also like to design unique tours not offered by others.
Just below, you can see our upcoming tour schedule.
Megaliths of France
The largest collection of standing stones (or menhirs) in the world, in southern Brittany, the westernmost province of France, is the focus of this tour. Mostly arranged in impressive rows or alignments, with some standing alone, these date to the Neolithic Period, 5000-2500 BC, and are accompanied by many other features, such as tumuli (earthen mounds built up over a grave), dolmens (chambers formed from upright stones overlain with capstones and originally buried beneath tumuli or rock cairns), and geometric shapes formed from rows of menhirs (generally rectangles and circles). Some of these features are richly decorated with inscribed symbols and patterns, and excavated tombs have yielded wonderful artifacts. All these constructions are the product of Neolithic farmers who subsisted on cereals and livestock their ancestors brought from the Fertile Crescent. Some researchers believe that western France was the heartland of the European Megalithic culture, which spread outward to the British Isles and areas to the north. Our tour, while sampling the cultural flavor of this unique part of France, will visit the most impressive and significant of the region’s megalithic sites to tell its story and explore its many mysteries.
Dates: September 15-23, 2025
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Registration Deadline: June 5, 2025. Spots are limited, so register today!
Peru: Civilizations of Northern Peru
The Andean region possesses the oldest known civilization in the Americas, the earliest representative of which is the Caral-Supe Civilization of the narrow coastal strip, whose oldest city began around 3500 BC. The Andean Civilization is one of the six “pristine” civilizations in the world (the others being Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, Mesoamerica, and the Indus Valley), meaning purely indigenous and not derived from any other civilization. This region is known for extensive road systems, architecture and textile weaving. Agriculture in the coastal strip was possible only with irrigation from the high Andes, which allowed people to cultivate a wide variety of crops despite the hyper-arid coastal conditions. Food production spread from the coast into the Andes. Potatoes, peppers, peanuts, manioc, chocolate, and coca from the Andean region eventually became significant for trade worldwide. Archaeologists are making new discoveries nearly every day at the thousands of sites in Peru, of which much is not understood. This tour will feature an exploration of the sites and artifacts left behind by the cultures of northern Peru, comprising many of the most important and influential in the region. This includes a visit to the second largest adobe city in the world, Chan Chan; the oldest city in the Western Hemisphere, Caral; and an ancient citadel in the clouds that is called the “Machu Picchu of the North,” Kuelap. Our tour is led by a distinguished expert, Dr. Augusto Bazán Pérez, a Peruvian archaeologist and Research Director of the El Brujo Archaeological Complex, which is one of the most important destinations on this tour.
Dates: October 7-19, 2025
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Registration deadline August 7, 2025. Spots are limited, so register today!
Ancient Maya Cities of the Yucatan
Maya civilization flourished in the Yucatán from the early Pre-classical (ca. 2000 BC) to the early Spanish colonial period. Even after the so-called Maya Collapse of the ninth century AD, Maya cities in the Yucatán continued, with some rising and others falling, throughout Post-classical times (AD 950-1539). As a result, this region offers an opportunity to visit a series of Maya cities, each unique and all of them together representing thousands of years of continuous Maya cultural development up to the time when Bishop Landa burnt the Maya books. After visiting various Maya cities, you will have a firm, hands-on, concept of the wonderful richness and complexity of urban Maya culture. In the process, you will witness the cultural life of modern Maya people, who are a majority of the local population.
Dates: December 3-12, 2025
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Registration Deadline: September 3, 2025. Click here to register.
Angkor and the Rise of Southeast Asian Civilization
Civilization in Cambodia had its origin in the kingdom of Funan, beginning in the first century AD, when trade connections between India and the lower Mekong River delta brought about the adoption of many cultural elements from the subcontinent, including Vedic and Hindu religion, political thought, literature, mythology, and art motifs. As with later kingdoms in Cambodia, rice cultivation, fishing, irrigation, and maritime trade played big roles in the development and growth of the society. The successor state, Chenla, replaced Funan in the sixth century and was itself replaced three centuries later by the much better known Khmer Empire, which spread throughout Southeast Asia and retained many of the cultural and hydrological elements developed earlier by Funan and Chenla. The Khmer Empire golden age (roughly AD 800-1400) produced most of the impressive ancient monuments widely known today, including Angkor and many others, which are the focus of our tour. We will spend three days in the vicinity of Angkor Wat, the largest religious edifice in the world.
Dates: February 2-11, 2026
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Registration Deadline: November 2, 2025. Spots are limited, so register today!
Going with the Flow of the Ancient Rivers: Upper Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent
The latest research suggests that the roots of civilization are to be found in southeastern Anatolia and adjacent part of the Fertile Crescent. Archaeologists have discovered to their amazement that settled communities with ritual features, possibly temples, containing sculpted monoliths existed here nearly 12,000 years ago, possibly even before the advent of agriculture. The best-known of these sites is Göbekli Tepe, but more research is revealing a complex of similar sites not far away. Much remains to be learned, but now it seems that these late-Pleistocene, pre-pottery sites launched the development of plant cultivation and animal domestication. They apparently mark the beginning of Neolithic culture, which spread widely in all directions over the following millennia, reaching the Atlantic Ocean about 6000 years ago and setting the stage for civilization. Subsequent cultural and historical developments in this part of upper Mesopotamia involve a sequence of cultures and civilizations that are central to human history in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and Europe. Among these cultures are the Hittites, Assyrians, Greeks, Armenians, Persians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, and Crusaders. Perhaps nowhere else in the world could we have designed a tour offering an opportunity to experience such a diverse cross-section of human civilization.
Dates: October 6-16, 2026
Click here to view the itinerary and register for your spot!
Registration Deadline: July 6, 2026. Spots are limited, so register today!