Professor John Overbeck of the State University of New York at Albany Classics Department will be leading a 14-day tour exploring archaeology and history in The Peloponnese, the southernmost portion of the Greek mainland. Departure from the USA is December 31, 2001, and return from the basic tour is January 13, 2002. There is an optional four-day extension, January 13 through January 16, returning to the USA January 17, to experience the archaeology of Minoan Crete.

Sites to be visited on the main tour include: Athens, including the National Archaeological Museum, with its world-class collection of Greek and Bronze Age art, including Schliemann's fabulous finds from "golden" Mycenae, and the Acropolis, its museum and monuments, including the Parthenon; Arcadia, including Tripolis, and travelling through the picturesque and dramatically situated villages of Dimitsana and Stemnitsa; Olympia, site of the original Olympic Games and the sanctuary of Zeus; Andravida, with the only surviving Frankish cathedral in Greece; the west coast of the Peloponnese; Pylos; Sparta and Mystras; the Menelaion; Monemvasia, the "Gibraltar of Greece"; Tegea; Lerna; Nauplion; Tiryns; Agros; Epidauros, with its fine ancient theater and the sanctuary of Asklepios; Mycenae; Corinth; and the diolkos, over which ships were conveyed from sea to sea in antiquity.

The optional five-day extension will be to Crete. Sites to be visited include: Heraklion, and its Archaeological Museum which holds the majority of Cretan archaeological treasures; the magnificent Palace of Minos at Knossos and its vicinity; the Minoan villas of Amnisos and Nirou Khani; Malia, the best-preserved of the great Minoan palaces; Gournia; Vasiliki; Minoan Archanes, including visits to its museum, a palatial building, cemetary, and temple; and the Minoan villa at Vathypetro.

Professor Overbeck is an experienced leader of tours to Greece. Some photos from his 1998 tour of Southern Greece and Crete may be seen by clicking here. A map available on the web showing most of the area of the main tour is available at http://users.med.auth.gr/~tsikaras/maps/map7.jpg. Maps of Crete, and the part of the Peloponnese missing from the previous map, may be found at the same web site, as links at http://users.med.auth.gr/~tsikaras/maps/map9.jpg, West Crete and including Monemvasia, and http://users.med.auth.gr/~tsikaras/maps/map11.jpg, East Crete. (NOTE: linking to this site is not an endorsement of the site.)

The price for the 2002 tour of Greece is $2299*. For the optional extension the price is an additional $650*.

* Price figures include transportation, lodging, site admission fees, and meals as indicated in the full tour details. Prices are per person based on double occupancy (Single Supplement for the main tour is $349, for the extension $149), and are based on airfares, number of tour participants, rates of exchange, etc. as projected at the time of tour design. Bookings received 60 days or less prior to departure require a surcharge.

Please note: The tour is not an official Departmental activity, and this announcement is not the official description of the tour.

Full details are available from:

Travel with the Experts
P.O. Box 285
Manasquan, NJ 08736-3626 USA
tel. 732-292-0034; fax 732-292-0184
e-mail tvlexperts@aol.com