🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Tarsus — Gözlükule Lower Terrace
Neolithic to Ottoman (6000 BCE–1500 CE) · Neolithic → EBA → Hittite → Neo-Assyrian → Hellenistic → Roman
Cilician gateway lower town — Hittite sealings to Roman grid (Goldman 1934).
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CategoriesAncient cities
Capitals, ports and metropolises that rose, fell and were found again.
🇮🇳 India · Archaeological wonder
Pre-Harappan to Mature Harappan to Late (~6500–1900 BCE; urban peak 2600–1900 BCE) · Indus Valley Civilization (Harappan, Hakra–Ghaggar)
Spread across seven mounds over 550 ha, Rakhigarhi surpasses Mohenjo-daro as the largest Harappan settlement, straddling the dried Ghaggar (Saraswati) river.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Neolithic to Ottoman (6000 BCE–1500 CE) · Neolithic → EBA → Hittite → Neo-Assyrian → Hellenistic → Roman
Cilician gateway lower town — Hittite sealings to Roman grid (Goldman 1934).
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Ancient city
Kangju to Karakhanid to Mongol to Timurid · Sogdian / Turkic / Karakhanid / Mongol
Silk Road ghost city in Otrar Oasis at Syr Darya–Arys confluence, occupied 1st c. CE–18th c., apex 10th–12th c. as caravan metropolis of 10 ha citadel + 40 ha shakhristan.
🇮🇹 Italy · Submerged site
Archaic Greek to Late Antique (700 BCE – 5th c. CE) · Syracusan Greek / Sicilian Sicel
700 BCE Syracusan colony at Vendicari lagoon — quay slabs and fish tanks half in sea at –0.5 to –3 m behind 3.5 km walls.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Late Chalcolithic to Neo-Hittite (5000 BCE–700 BCE; palace phase 3400–3000 BCE; Neo-Hittite 1200–712 BCE) · Late Chalcolithic / Kura-Araxes / Hittite / Neo-Hittite
Tell city type site for emergence of state and palace economy (3400–3000 BCE): Late Chalcolithic palace (Room A 900) with wall paintings, storerooms with mass-produced bowls, sword hoard (earliest…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Hydraulic works
Neo-Assyrian Sargonid (720 – 681 BCE) · Neo-Assyrian imperial under Sennacherib
Khorsabad 5 km arched head of Sennacherib's 55 km 690 BCE Khinis–Nineveh canal system.
🇵🇸 Palestine · Ancient village
Natufian to Bronze Age (12,000 BCE onward; tower c.8300 BCE) · Natufian → PPNA/PPNB → Canaanite
Tell with Natufian through Bronze Age layers including Pre-Pottery Neolithic A stone tower (c.8300 BCE) and wall – among earliest monumental architecture and fortification. Biblical Jericho.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Middle Bronze to Neo-Assyrian (c.2000–600 BCE; bilingual 850 BCE) · Old Babylonian → Mittani (Washukanni?) → Middle Assyrian → Aramaean → Neo-Assyrian
Tell Fecheriye (ancient Sikan/Sikani) is 90-ha dual-mound south of Halaf on Khabur source, famed for 1979 Hadad-yithʻi bilingual statue — life-size basalt with...
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Parthian to Sassanian (c.200 BCE–241 CE) · Parthian-Arab (Hatrene Aramaic) / Hellenistic influence
Fortified Parthian-Arab desert city (2nd c BCE–241 CE) with circular walls 6.4 km circuit resisting Trajan (117) and Septimius Severus (198).
🇲🇦 Morocco · Ancient city
Idrisid to Almoravid (c. 800–1071 CE capital before Marrakech 1071) · Masmuda Berber Almoravid origins (Abu Bakr, Yusuf ibn Tashfin)
Aghmat excavated by Messier 2000s, Mu'tamid ibn Abbad exile tomb 1095, Almoravid origin stratigraphy.
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient city
Iron Age (1200 BCE–500 CE) · Local Neolithic
Machu Picchu Outlier Terrace in Colorado Plateau, United States is a Iron Age (1200 BCE–500 CE) ancient city attributed to Local Neolithic culture.
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan · Ancient city
Achaemenid 6th c BCE to Timurid 18th c CE (Seljuk peak 11th–13th c) · Parthian / Seljuk / Timurid (Persian-Central Asian)
Four superimposed cities of Merv oasis on Murghab alluvium: Erk Kala Achaemenid citadel, Gyaur Kala Hellenistic-Parthian double-walled (Antiochia Margiana), Sultan Kala Seljuk capital (world's…
🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Iron Age (1200 BCE–500 CE) · Local Neolithic
Kiln Workshop Complex North in Ganga Plain, India is a Iron Age (1200 BCE–500 CE) ancient city attributed to Local Neolithic culture.
🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Harappan (3500–1900 BCE; Pre-Harappan Sothi 3500; Mature 2600–1900) · Harappan Sothi → Harappan
Ghaggar Kalibangan excavated by Thapar & Lal 1960–69, ploughed field cross-furrows 2900 BCE earliest plough.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Iron Age (1200 BCE–500 CE) · Classical
Charnel House Cemetery East in Coastal Plain, Israel is a Iron Age (1200 BCE–500 CE) ancient city attributed to Classical culture.
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Ancient city
Sogdian to Timurid (600 BCE–1400 CE) · Sogdian to Karakhanid to Timurid
Sairam–Isfijab is Kazakhstan's oldest city (600 BCE–1400 CE) — ancient Isfijab, 40-ha citadel–shahristan–rabad on the Syr Darya Silk Road with 8 gates.
🇵🇪 Peru · Ancient city
Classical Antiquity (800 BCE–500 CE) · Classical
Oven Cluster West in Coastal Peru, Peru is a Classical Antiquity (800 BCE–500 CE) ancient city attributed to Classical culture.
🇮🇹 Italy · Submerged site
Republican to Late Antique (140 BCE – 8th c CE) · Roman
Former luxury resort of Rome’s elite (Caesar, Nero, Hadrian) with imperial villa, submerged by bradyseism (volcanic uplift/subsidence) to 5–9 m, with mosaics, statues and pilings visible snorkelling.
🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Mughal 1571–1585 CE · Mughal (Akbar)
Mughal imperial city founded 1571 by Akbar as capital to honor Sufi Salim Chishti, combining Persian, Timurid and Gujarati-Rajasthani architecture in red sandstone.
🇯🇵 Japan · Ancient city
Nara Period 710–784 CE (with brief return 745–784) · Yamato / Nara Japanese (Ritsuryo)
Imperial palace of Heijō-kyō capital (710–784 CE) modeling Tang Chang'an, 1.2×1.6 km enclosure with Daigokuden audience hall, Suzaku Gate and Eastern Palace Garden ponds.
🇹🇳 Tunisia · Ancient city
Roman to Byzantine (1st c.–7th c. CE) · Numidian / Roman-Christian
Episcopal village over spring with Saturn stelae and church.
🇹🇳 Tunisia · Ancient city
Punic to Roman (4th c BCE – 6th c CE) · Punic / Roman
Coastal Sahel village near Pheradi Maius harbour, with Punic bottle cisterns and Roman house mosaics, controlling coastal lagoon salt.
🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Mature Harappan 2650–2100 BCE (with Early/Late phases 3500–1800 BCE) · Indus Valley / Harappan
Harappan metropolis (2650–2100 BCE) on Khadir island in Great Rann of Kutch, the fifth largest Harappan site covering 100 ha with citadel, middle and lower towns and monumental water management.
🇵🇪 Peru · Ancient city
Late Archaic 3000–2500 BCE · Norte Chico (Caral maritime)
Coastal port six pyramids, fish-for-cotton, 3000–2500 BCE.
