British Columbia

Claimed to be the place where the first horse races were organized in the world and known as the Las Vegas of the period with its entertainment centers, the ancient city of Alabanda in western Turkey is waiting to welcome visitors.

The new director of the Acropolis Museum has called for an end to the long-running dispute for the return of the Parthenon marbles to Greece, noting that London's parliament could rule on the issue.

"It's time for the matter to be closed," Nikos Stampolidis told AFP in an interview.

The discovery of thousands of artifacts and ancient roads during the excavations in the ancient city of Aigai, one of the 12 Aeolian cities in the western province of Manisa, the history of which dates back to the eighth century B.C., is drawing the attention of visitors.

Dozens of looted antiquities seized from billionaire hedge fund founder Michael Steinhardt after a years long investigation have been returned to the people of Greece, prosecutors in New York announced on Feb. 23.

The artifacts included a sculpture of a young man from about 560 B.C., known as a kouros, that is worth $14 million, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.

Archaeologists deep in the Jordanian desert have discovered a 9,000-year-old ritualistic complex near what is thought to be the earliest known large human-built structure worldwide.

The Stone Age shrine site, excavated last year, was used by gazelle hunters and features carved stone figures, an altar and a miniature model of a large-scale hunting trap.

Six mummified children thought to have been sacrificed hundreds of years ago, apparently to accompany a dead nobleman to the afterlife, have been unearthed in a tomb near Lima, archaeologists reported.

Travel experts have selected Turkey's best five canyons to visit, with Ulubey in the Aegean province of Uşak topping the list, daily Milliyet has reported.

"Ulubey is the world's second longest canyon, and many movies have been shot here," the daily said, quoting the experts' opinions.

A 2,300-year-old bastion in Turkey's northwestern province of Bursa has been turned into a contemporary art center following a comprehensive restoration process carried out by local authorities.

Nicomedia in what is today the İzmit district of the northwestern province of Kocaeli, which was one of the first metropolitan cities of the Roman Empire and its capital for long years, is home to the world's largest ancient theater overlooking the sea, according to archaeological data.

A Turkish engineer working in the U.S. has discovered the harbor of an ancient city underwater while diving off the Aegean province of İzmir's Dikili district, where he came for a summer vacation.

Denem Orhun, a 39-year-old engineer working for a music company in the U.S., came across round columns underwater while diving off the coast of Dikili a year and a half ago.