🇹🇳 Tunisia · Ancient city
Aquae Regiae
Numidian to Byzantine (2nd c. BCE–7th c. CE) · Numidian / Roman
Hot-spring road station with bath complex and Byzantine granary fort.
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CategoriesAncient cities
Capitals, ports and metropolises that rose, fell and were found again.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Middle Palaeolithic to Natufian (c.60000–12000 BCE) · Mousterian (Neanderthal) → Aurignacian → Kebaran → Natufian
Deep Mount Carmel cave with 15 m stratified sequence from Middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian, Neanderthal ‘Kebara 2’ pelvis...
🇹🇳 Tunisia · Ancient city
Numidian to Byzantine (2nd c. BCE–7th c. CE) · Numidian / Roman
Hot-spring road station with bath complex and Byzantine granary fort.
🇩🇿 Algeria · Ancient city
Numidian to Byzantine (3rd c. BCE–7th c. CE) · Numidian / Roman
Hilltop municipium with cyclopean walls and Augustan arch.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Late Archaic / Norte Chico · Caral-Supe / Norte Chico
Oldest city in Americas and largest Late Archaic New World pyramids (c.2600 BCE) – six truncated earthen pyramids with sunken plazas, residential sectors and early quipu and flutes in Supe Valley,…
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Early Bronze Age to Iron Age · Eblaite (Semitic)
Ebla (Tell Mardikh) in Idlib Governorate, Syria is a Early Bronze Age to Iron Age ancient city attributed to Eblaite (Semitic) culture.
🇹🇳 Tunisia · Ancient city
Numidian to Byzantine (3rd c. BCE–7th c. CE) · Numidian / Roman
Byzacena civitas with Antonine arch and Saturn sanctuary (200 stelae).
🇩🇿 Algeria · Ancient city
Punic (6th c BCE) – Roman – Christian (5th c CE) · Punic / Mauretanian / Roman
Coastal UNESCO port with Punic necropolis (6th c BCE tophet), Roman forum, theatre, and two Christian basilicas (Salsa martyr shrine) on promontory with offshore islet. Numidian–Ma...
🇪🇬 Egypt · Submerged site
Late Period to Byzantine (6th c BCE – 8th c CE) · Egyptian / Greek
Legendary port of entry to Egypt before Alexandria, submerged after earthquake/liquefaction 6th–8th century CE, rediscovered 2000 by Franck Goddio (IEASM) with stele of Nectanebo I, temples of…
🇨🇳 China · Pyramid
Qin Dynasty · Qin / Han-precursor
Unopened earthen pyramid mound of Qin Shi Huang (259–210 BCE) with 600 pits, ~8000 terracotta warriors, chariots, weapons protecting subterranean bronze palace described by Sima Qian with mercury…
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Halaf to Islamic (c.5900 BCE–1200 CE) · Halaf-Ubaid → Ninevite 5 → Mitanni → Assyrian
Jazira tell (8 ha, 12 m high) on the Jaghjagh, French excavations by Jean-Marie Castel. Sequence Ninevite 5 to Islamic w...
🇩🇿 Algeria · Ancient city
Berber / Roman / Byzantine · Roman / Berber
Veteran colony of Legio III Augusta controlling Hauts Plateaux–Aurès corridor. Tetrapylon Arch of Caracalla (214 CE), amphitheatre, basilica of St Crispina (76 m) with catacombs, Byzantine walls with…
🇹🇳 Tunisia · Ancient city
Roman to Byzantine (1st c CE – 7th c CE; colonia under Trajan) · Roman / Byzantine (Byzacena)
Byzacena road city at Sahara edge, Thelepte flourished as Byzantine dux capital with massive fortress (1.2 km circuit) built from Roman spolia, two basilicas with mosaics, baths an...
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Hausa foundation (9th c CE – 1805 Fulani conquest; Bayajidda c. 900 CE) · Hausa (Bayajidda legend; Daurama matriarchal tradition)
Holiest Hausa city where Bayajidda legend says Daurama queen's serpent Sarki in Kusugu well was slain c. 900 CE founding Hausa Bakwai; 14th c mud walls 6.5 km with palace of Emir a...
🇩🇿 Algeria · Ancient city
Roman (2nd c. CE–7th c. CE) · Roman (Numidia)
Municipium famed for 220 CE water-law inscription regulating drought rotation.
🇩🇿 Algeria · Fortress
Roman (81 CE – 5th c CE; legionary base 123–238 CE) · Roman (Legio III Augusta)
Africa's largest legionary fortress, Lambaesis housed 6,000 men of III Augusta with principia, baths, amphitheatre, aqueduct and arch of Commodus. Headquarters shrine and numerus i...
🇮🇹 Italy · Buried city
Roman (foundation Oscan 6th c BCE, Roman from 80 BCE) · Roman
Roman city of 12,000 buried by Vesuvius eruption 24 August 79 CE under 4–6 m pumice and ash, preserving streets, villas, Forum, amphitheatre, baths and plaster casts of victims.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Buried city
Early Bronze Age to Byzantine (Troy I c.3000 BCE – Troy IX 85 CE–500 CE) · Anatolian / Mycenaean-associated / Greek / Roman
Mound of Hisarlik with 9 settlement layers Troy I–IX (3000 BCE–500 CE) plus Homeric epic city Troy VI/VII.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Fortified city
Hausa classical (c. 1100–1807 CE; Ganuwa built 13th–14th c) · Hausa (Katsina scholarly centre)
Seven-gate 14 km mud rampart enclosing 405 ha Hausa scholarly city of Gobarau minaret (14th c mudbrick tower 15 m, oldest multi-storey mud in West Africa), manuscript libraries and...
🇸🇩 Sudan · Ancient city
Makurian Christian (c. 500–1500 CE; cathedral 707 CE) · Makurian Nubian Christian
Annex quarter south of Old Dongolo's famous cruciform church, with 707 CE cathedral (32×28 m) with 6 granite columns, 11th c frescoes of archangels and king portraits, and palace a...
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Pharaonic / Graeco-Roman · Egyptian / Greek / Roman
Nome capital whose rubbish mounds yielded 500,000+ Greek papyri (Grenfell & Hunt 1896–1906) – Sappho, Menander, Gospel of Thomas.
🇩🇿 Algeria · Ancient city
Roman / Byzantine · Roman
Veteran colonia of Nerva (97 CE) raised to capital of Mauretania Sitifensis by Diocletian. Byzantine fortress 548×416 m encloses forum under modern city; museum holds mosaic hoard; centuriation grid…
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Proto-Hassuna to Ubaid (c.6200–4200 BCE) · Hassuna–Samarra → Halaf → Ubaid
Small Neolithic tell in the Upper Khabur near the Wadi Jaghjagh, excavated by Takuya Matsutani. Stratified Proto-Hassuna...
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Old Kingdom / Second Intermediate · Egyptian
Lost capital of Xoite 14th Dynasty (76 kings) contesting Hyksos Avaris. Stepped temple of Amun and 8 m Hyksos walls detected by magnetometry; Herodotus lists Delta metropolis.
🇲🇱 Mali · Ancient city
Trans-Saharan caravan (c. 700–1400 CE; Almoravid market) · Berber–Tuareg (Tadmekka Sanhaja) / Arab caravan
Mysterious stone city in Saharan piedmont, Essouk is Tadmekka the 9th c Arab-described 'Tadmakkat' gold city with 450×250 m stone houses, mosque and 11th c Arabic stelae, on Niger–...
