Put on your fedora, pick up your bullwhip and set off for adventure where your travel may find you digging up buried treasures that have been lost for centuries.

OK, real archaeologists aren't like Indiana Jones, but it is fun to imagine yourself unraveling ancient secrets that have eluded modern man for ages; especially if you can get a chance to be part of an archeological expedition.

Many archeological teams are looking for volunteers to spend their vacations helping dig up the past, whether you are helping to excavate a medieval castle, a temple in a South East Asia jungle, or even the tomb of an Egyptian king.

If this sounds like the adventure vacation you have been looking for all your life, here are a few resources to check out before you go: One excellent site is www.archaeolink.com, where you will find an exhaustive list of archeolical tours and volunteering opportunities for vacations all over the world.

K. Kris Hirst, who writes the Archaeology section of About.com has written a very good article on archaeological volunteering that you should check out at www.archaeology.about.com.

Gorpaway.com, who always does adventure travel right, has a huge list of archaeology vacations and tours. While it does seem that most of Gorp's tours are in North America, it also has tours available in Mexico, South America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Asia and Australia. Check out their list at www.gorpaway.com.

Another article you should check out is by Richard Collins in familyadventuretravel.com. He points out t

hat: The real adventure in archaeology, however, is doing it. There is no substitute for the thrill of discovery--of actually touching history and feeling it come alive in your hands. Finding even the most mundane of artifacts, such as a simple stone tool that may have last been held by human hands perhaps a thousand years ago, is an absolutely unparalleled experience. Be sure to check out his excellent article at A Vacation You Can Really Dig - Archaeological Tourism. OK I hope we are really clear that real archaeology is not like Hollywood makes it look in the movies. It's a safe bet you won't be finding secret passages or hidden tombs, and you definitely won't be chased across the world by treasure-hunting Nazis. But your archaeological vacation will have its own kind of adventure that you won't ever forget. So go out and touch history. COPYRIGHT © 2006, Charles Brown. All rights reserved.

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