Unearth the historic legacies of the ancient “cradle of civilization.”
Travel back in time through the evolution of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. Visit historical sites with UNESCO recognition, including the fourth century Church of St. Demetrius, with its well-preserved mosaics and frescoes. Enjoy a curated visit to the Archaeological Museum of Dion, and visit Pella, the birthplace of Alexander the Great. Continue to Vergina, and enter the remarkable underground Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai. In Athens, discover world-renowned museums including the Acropolis Museum and Benaki Museum with expert-led tours.
Highlights
- Travel from Thessaloniki to Athens with Frank Dabell, Oxford-educated art historian, tracing Alexander the Great and the Apostle Paul’s footsteps through northern and central Greece.
- Descend into the Royal Tombs at Vergina, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Aigai, joining experts for an inside look at the tomb of Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great.
- Walk the streets of UNESCO-listed Philippi, once the spiritual and political hub of eastern Macedonia, where the Apostle Paul founded one of the first Christian communities in Europe.
- Explore Thessaloniki, a city layered with Macedonian, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, and Sephardic legacies, and experience how shifting empires forged one of the Mediterranean’s great crossroads.
- Discover masterpieces during a guided tour of Athens’s National Archaeological Museum, home to the greatest collection of Greek antiquities in the world, from Mycenaean gold and Bronze Age frescoes to original bronzes.
- Join a special, first-entrance visit to Athens’s incomparable Acropolis, the most complete ancient Greek monumental complex still in existence.
- Enter the Acropolis Museum, with exclusive access to masterpieces of classical Athens and a private talk that brings the city’s most famous monuments into sharper focus.
- Meet archaeologists in Thessaloniki and Athens, who will share insights into the world of Alexander the Great.
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