Sarah Parcak: recommendation

Transcript context

…Let’s say I have the ability to take a month off work and enough money to fly anywhere you send me. I just want to see archaeological sites. Purely subjective from you, what tour do you design for me? Where do you send me? Egypt aside. We know that’s your first love. A month. You can probably, depending on travel, and you want to be able to take places in, so probably a couple of days at every place. Maybe you have time to see 10 things. You want to hit the highlights versus say, a themed tour. I’m very biased, having been to many places in the world. I would say, certainly, going to Tikal in Guatemala. That’s unbelievable, and everyone who’s seen the third Star Wars movie, you see the little temple sticking out from around the rainforest, and it’s amazing because you have this extraordinary Mayan site, and then you’re surrounded by beautiful rain forest, so go there first. Then fly down to Peru. You’ve got to see Machu Picchu. I had the chance to see it a couple of years ago for the first time. I wasn’t prepared. I’d seen pictures. My colleagues have told me about it, but the breathtaking awed majesty of where it’s situated, and just the fact that the world drops away around it, and it’s surrounded by mountains, and there’s this beautiful little town that the Inca built on top of a mountain. It’s mind-blowing. I would say Stonehenge at solstice just because it’s worth seeing all the monks and everyone dressed up and the festivities. You get a sense of how that place would have been honored in antiquity, and it’s beautiful. Definitely Stonehenge. I would say you’ve got to hit Pompei and Herculaneum just because they’re so well preserved, and it’s like you are walking around an old European village or town, and you just get a sense of how people lived. I would say — and this is going to jump around a bit geographically as I try to pick the top, top places — I would say Angkor Wat. It’s the only place I visited in the world, aside from the Vatican, where I got so overwhelmed, I had to sit and take a nap in situ because my eyes hurt. There was too much for me to take in. At Angkor, it’s not just one temple — it’s dozens and dozens of temples, and the Khmer — they carved every square inch of their temples with images of gods and goddesses and religious scenes. You don’t know where to look. Everywhere you look is a perfect picture. So definitely Angkor and, obviously, the food and the culture as well. The terracotta warriors of Xi’an. I cried when I visited them for the first time. It’s so overwhelming to be there. I was there with a group of archaeologists, and we all just stood. There’s an energy to this place. I’m a scientist. I don’t believe in crystal goddesses and energy fields and all that stuff. But there was such a presence to that place that I haven’t felt anywhere else in the world. We just stood for a half hour, unable to speak because it was so overwhelming. I’ve never been to Easter Island, although that’s next. As soon as the pandemic is over, we are going to Easter Island. I have colleagues that work there, and we’re trading out a trip to Egypt for a trip to Easter Island. Definitely hit Easter Island as well. It’s beautiful and amazing. I think that would probably take care of your month. That would take care of the month. Now you’re a pioneer with technology. Let me mention just a few technologies. Tell me briefly what they are good for in archaeology. Google Earth.…

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