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CategoriesAncient cities
Capitals, ports and metropolises that rose, fell and were found again.
🇷🇺 Russia · Ancient city
Archaic to Hellenistic literature (688 BCE earliest to 4th c. via Callimachus) · Greek poetical–geographic tradition
Pindar–Herodotus utopia beyond the North Wind where hyperboreans send first-fruits to Delos and Apollo winters.
🇧🇷 Brazil · Ancient city
Pre-Columbian Xinguano (800 – 1600 CE) · Xinguano (Arawak-Karib)
Kuhikugu South in Mato Grosso, Brazil is a Pre-Columbian Xinguano (800 – 1600 CE) ancient city attributed to Xinguano (Arawak-Karib) culture.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Qatna Royal Tomb AnteChamber in Homs, Mishrifeh, Syria is a Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) ancient city attributed to Bronze Age.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
EB IV to Byzantine (c.2400 BCE–600 CE; peak Iron II) · Eblaite → Amorite → Hittite/Mitanni → Neo-Hittite/Aramaean
Aramaean Hatarikka with alphabetic stele and Iron Age gate sphinxes atop 28 ha tell near Idlib.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Late Uruk to Early Dynastic I–II (3500–2500 BCE) · North Mesopotamian Uruk → Early Bronze (EJ 1–2)
Euphrates levee town with Uruk planned lower town and EB fortification beside Habuba.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Submerged site
Archaic to Byzantine (c. 600 BCE – 800 CE) · Milesian Greek / Paphlagonian / Persian / Hellenistic / Roman
Milesian Black Sea mole – 40 m ashlar river-sea mole at –2.5 m off Filyos delta.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Avdat Nabataean Wine Press 7 in South, Avdat, Israel is a Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) ancient city attributed to Bronze Age.
🇧🇿 Belize · Ancient city
Preclassic 1200 BCE–900 CE (peak Late Classic 562–680, Star-War defeat of Tikal) · Maya (Classic lowland; ally of Calakmul vs Tikal; later independent kingdom Uxwitzá)
Largest Maya city in Belize and greater Tikal rival: 200 km² settlement (70 sq mi mapped), Caana (“Sky Palace”) pyramid 43 m high – tallest man-made structure in Belize – with corner palaces, 160+…
🇧🇿 Belize · Ancient city
Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Caracol Caana Summit Palace in Cayo, Caracol, Belize is a Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) ancient city attributed to Bronze Age.
🇷🇴 Romania · Ancient city
Eneolithic Precucuteni → Cucuteni A–B (5200–3500 BCE) · Precucuteni–Cucuteni (Western Cucuteni-Trypillia)
Cucuteni (Cucuteni-Cetățuia) — eponymous promontory type site of Cucuteni-Trypillia culture discovered 1884 by N. Beldiceanu on Dealul Gosan above Cucuteni village, 30 km west Iași.
🇵🇪 Peru · Archaeological wonder
Late Horizon Inca Imperial 1440–1530 CE (built under Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui) · Inca (Quechua, Late Horizon, Sacred Valley expansion)
Inca royal estate and agricultural terraces considered among finest Inca ashlar engineering beyond Machu Picchu: Intihuatana (Sun-hitching stone) solstice-gnomon ridge, Qalla Q'asa fortress on…
🇱🇹 Lithuania · Ancient city
Middle Ages to Early Modern (13th–18th c. with 5th c. hillfort substratum) · Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Vilnius Lower Castle and Cathedral Square in Vilnius County, Vilnius Old Town, Gediminas Hill foot, Lithuania is a Middle Ages to Early Modern (13th–18th c. with 5th c.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Archaic to Roman · Aiolian Greek, Hellenistic Attalid
Yunt Dağ 400-m Aiolian Athena 300 BCE terrace with 3-storey stoa and agora, 12 Aiolian League wool city.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Hellenistic to Roman · Carian, Hellenistic, Roman
Çine plain 6×12 Ionian Apollo Isotimos 200 BCE with 8 architraved columns, Chrysaoric capital.
🇵🇹 Portugal · Ancient city
Medieval cartographic (1424 Pizzigano – 1492 Columbus) · Pizzigano–Portuguese cartographic
1424 Pizzigano rectangular 'Seven Cities' phantom west of Azores — Columbus' waypoint to Cipangu before Antilia arch.
🇲🇱 Mali · Ancient city
Medieval trans-Saharan (8th–15th c; peak 11th–14th c) · Sanhaja Berber / Tuareg (Kel Essouk) / Songhai
Arid 12 ha Berber warehouse town with 8th-c mosque (among earliest in West Africa) and 750,000 glass beads on salt route.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Predynastic to Old Kingdom (Naqada I–III to 2686 BCE; peak Naqada III) · Egyptian (Predynastic Naqada II–III / Early Dynastic)
Predynastic megacity 3500 BCE 5 ha yielding Narmer Palette, earliest 12 m mudbrick fort, HK6 elephant burial and painted Tomb 100.
🇩🇰 Denmark · Ancient city
Migration → Viking Age 500–1000 (Hall Complex 600–700 Skjöldungar) · Zealand Iron Age–Viking (Skjöldungar/Scylding) — Beowulf Heorot Heorot analog
Lejre (Gammel Lejre, Lejre Royal Complex) — Iron Age → Viking Age central-place and hall complex (c.500–1000, hall 600–700 peak) 8 km west Roskilde on Lejre River, Zealand's Beowulf Heorot candidate…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Submerged site
Bronze Age to Hellenistic (1570 – 300 BCE) · Hyksos / New Kingdom Egyptian / Late Period
15th c. BCE Thutmose III naval arsenal town on Canopic delta sandbar — quay now –1.5 to –3 m under Idku lagoon fish farms.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Elkab Rock Tomb 8 West Wall in Luxor, Elkab, Egypt is a Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) ancient city attributed to Bronze Age.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Submerged site
Ptolemaic to Roman (c.280 BCE – 150 CE) · Ptolemaic / Roman Egyptian
Myos Hormos system southern mangrove lagoon at Marsa Nakari — 0.5–1.5 m mangrove-enclosed harbour 18 km south of Marsa Alam, Nechesia hypothesis.
🇲🇦 Morocco · Ancient city
Early Islamic to Medieval (757–1393 CE; peak 10th–14th c CE) · Berber Miknasa / Islamic / Maliki
Gold-mint entrepôt Sijilmassa on Trans-Saharan Ghana road south of Rissani.
🇺🇦 Ukraine · Submerged site
Archaic to Late Antique (600 BCE – 400 CE) · Heraclean Greek / Bosporan
Eastern bay harbour of Tauric Chersonesos in Sandy Bay — 110 m quay at –1.8 m and twin ship-shed ramps.
🇺🇦 Ukraine · Submerged site
Archaic to Late Antique (600 BCE – 400 CE) · Heraclean Greek / Bosporan
Eastern bay harbour of Tauric Chersonesos in Sandy Bay — 110 m quay at –1.8 m and twin ship-shed ramps.
