Climbing to the top of the central pyramid with our son in a backpack was one of those peak travel moments, part Rocky, part Raiders of the Lost Ark. Negotiating the narrow steps, worn from centuries of foot traffic, exacerbated my festering fear of heights. There are 365 steps, one for each day of the year. I had my bulky old Nikon FE camera and the film was loaded incorrectly, so we don’t have pictures to prove we made it to the top. I still curse myself for not loading the film more carefully because tourists are no longer allowed to climb the central pyramid of El Castillo. The ministry of culture prohibited it in 2004.

A short walk from El Castillo you will find a large ball court where Mayan men played a game called pok ta pok. Experts believe that the object of the game was to hurl a ball through a ring that was mounted on a wall, seven meters above the ground. Each team had six field players who would attempt to pass the ball to their captain without using their hands. He would try the shot using a type of racquet. The captain of the team that made the first successful “basket” was then decapitated as a sacrifice to the gods! The Mayans saw this as an honor and a guaranteed ticket into heaven. The spiritual and, yes, gory quality of the game is palpable, as the imaginary sounds of the sacred arena seem to echo all around. Standing there, in awe of the Mayan culture, one can honestly envision the game as it must have played out, albeit informed by a History Channel reenactment.

It’s usually hot so get there early. Touring Chichen Itza makes a long day trip from Cancun or Merida, so we chose to stay in Valladolid, just 40 minutes from Chichen Itza. In fact, we had the best Yucatecan meal of our two week trip in our hotel.

The site is open 365 days a year and you could easily spend the whole day there.  Soon, however you will be able to take a virtual tour on your iPhone thanks to U-Tour, a multimedia company based in the Mexican state of Chiapas, but to see the iguanas skittering across the ancient structures, you’ll have to make the trip south of the border.

I have never been to Israel, but would love to go some day. The Israeli city of Tel Aviv would be my first stop. Tel Aviv sounds like such a vibrant city and since, so often there is bad news coming out of the Middle East, I thought it was a good time to bring up the 100th birthday of this bustling metropolis. This pulsing city of more than 1.5 million is the most liberal in Israel, full of artists, gay bars, high-tech companies and Bauhaus architecture. Tel Aviv is called the Barcelona of the Middle East, a hip city, with trendy restaurants and night life which, despite the ongoing political conflict that is never far away, has a lot to offer visitors. Upcoming anniversary events include:
* International Art Biennale (ARTLV) (9 September – 9 October), showcasing contemporary works in dozens of exhibitions.
* The Green Festival (17 October), dedicating of the Green Route along the Yarkon River and a centennial bike ride.
* Fashion Week in Tel Aviv Port (19-22 October).

In fact, seeing the Egyptian Pyramids wasn’t even my top priority when I arrived. I wanted to see Cairo, the fabled markets and crowded streets and the legendary River Nile. Even a visit to the Red Sea ranked pretty high on my list. I figured the pyramids would be another stop on my tourist path, granted an awesome stop, but I hadn’t given them much thought beyond that.

My itinerary gave me one afternoon to wander around Cairo before flying to Sharm el-Sheik. When I returned to Cairo three days later I had a window seat on the aircraft and was awed by the desperately dry Sinai below and the sparkling Gulf of Suez, a dramatically incongruous conjoining of land and sea. A short time later my seatmate, who had been keeping up a pretty good stream of monologue while looking over my shoulder, bellowed: “The pyramids! The pyramids!”

Every soul on the plane now knew that the pyramids were visible out the left side of the aircraft. I looked and sure enough, there was a stout brown edifice rising from the desert just beyond the Nile. It was a thrill to see, but from the air it appeared less pyramidal than I expected, less impressive than I thought it would be. A moment into these thoughts I discovered why. Suddenly, a little farther north, two huge, perfect pyramids and a smaller third rose above the surrounding landscape. My breath caught.

They were gigantic. They dwarfed the crowded stretch of buildings composing modern Cairo that marched toward the Nile and then stopped, as if turned back by the grandeur of these ancient structures. The pyramids of Giza appeared to cover several square blocks, incomprehensibly vast monuments that towered above the buildings of today’s city, looking as if they could swallow whole neighborhoods without a burp.

I stared at those structures until they passed from view, contorting my body trying to keep them in sight. When they were truly gone I sat back feeling as if I’d just seen a man from Mars, proof of an afterlife, or an angel on the wing. I’d had no idea the pyramids had such power, and suddenly I knew I had to see them up close. I’m sure I wasn’t the first person to underestimate the accomplishments of the ancient Egyptians, and my visit to Egypt took on a whole new dimension.

The new structure is 4,300 years-old and archaeologists think it is the tomb of Queen Sesheshet, the mother of Pharaoh Teti, the founder of ancient Egypt’s 6th dynasty.  Mothers were greatly revered in ancient Egypt: another great teaching moment. The secret found in the sand is located at Saqqara, just south of the capital Cairo. This is the 118th pyramid discovered in Egypt, if you are keeping count. You can see a video about the discovery on the National Geographic website. I could also throw in the news of the latest pyramid found when my sons received their Lego magazine featuring a pyramid replica. They were more impressed than the three-year-olds and both said they wanted to travel to Egypt to see the real version of the Lego structures.

“I ran the 100 yard dash in the Pythian Games. I came in last, of course. Even though the echoes of other runners were only in my imagination, I wouldn’t want to take away any of their glory. (I’m also realistic about my foot speed :-))

“But what a thrill it was to race down the track where the Pythian Games were held nearly 2500 years ago in Delphi, and for 500 odd years after that. (The marble seats are more recent - a mere 1800 years, put in during the reign of Hadrian as part of the Roman restoration of the temple precinct. The Romans also shortened the track from the Greek stadium length of about 187 meters to about 181. So my hundred yard dash left me far short of the finish!)”

Tim visited other ancient sites during his wanderings around Greece, including Mycenae, Epidaurus, the Palamidi Fortress in Nafplio, and sites in Athens. His photo essays on all of them will take you back in time.