🇲🇦 Morocco · Ancient city
Zilis (Asilah)
Mauretanian to Late Roman (4th c BCE–7th c CE; peak 1st–3rd c CE) · Mauri / Phoenician / Roman
Augustan Atlantic colonia Zilis (Asilah) with purple-dye garum ceti.
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CategoriesAncient cities
Capitals, ports and metropolises that rose, fell and were found again.
🇸🇩 Sudan · Ancient city
Christian Nubian Alodia (680–1504 CE) · Nubian Alodian Christian (Greek/Coptic)
Soba East is the 275 ha medieval capital of Christian Alodia (Alwa, 680–1504 CE) 15 km S of Khartoum at Blue Nile–White Nile confluence.
🇲🇦 Morocco · Ancient city
Mauretanian to Late Roman (4th c BCE–7th c CE; peak 1st–3rd c CE) · Mauri / Phoenician / Roman
Augustan Atlantic colonia Zilis (Asilah) with purple-dye garum ceti.
🇱🇧 Lebanon · Ancient city
Neolithic to Medieval (8800 BCE–present; urban from c.5000 BCE) · Neolithic / Canaanite / Phoenician / Egyptian / Roman / Crusader
Continuously inhabited since Neolithic, Byblos is one of the oldest cities in the world. Phoenician port that gave the Bible its name (byblos = papyrus), with layers from Neolithic, Chalcolithic,…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Early Dynastic to Ur III (c.3500–2000 BCE; peak Lagash 2500–2144 BCE) · Sumerian Lagash (ÉNSI rulers: Ur-Nanshe, Eannatum, Enmetena, Gudea)
Girsu (modern Tello/Telloh) is the sacred city of Lagash state — first Sumerian city ever excavated (1877) yielding Gudea diorite statues, Gudea cylinders (worl...
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) · Bronze Age urban
El-Lahun — Senwosret II Ancillary Town (Kahun, Fayum) in Fayum, El-Lahun, Egypt is a Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) ancient city attributed to B…
🇮🇳 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.
