🇹🇳 Tunisia · Ancient city
Kerkouane
Punic (Carthaginian) 6th–3rd c BCE · Carthaginian (Phoenician diaspora)
Only surviving pure Punic town, abandoned c.256 BCE with intact street grid, peristyle houses and purple-dye works.
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CategoriesAncient cities
Capitals, ports and metropolises that rose, fell and were found again.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Submerged site
Lycian to Byzantine (Hellenistic 4th c. BCE – 7th c. CE) · Lycian / Greek / Roman / Byzantine
Lycian harbour town Dolichiste subsided by 2nd c. earthquakes along 500 m of Kekova Island — sarcophagi awash.
🇹🇳 Tunisia · Ancient city
Punic (Carthaginian) 6th–3rd c BCE · Carthaginian (Phoenician diaspora)
Only surviving pure Punic town, abandoned c.256 BCE with intact street grid, peristyle houses and purple-dye works.
🇦🇫 Afghanistan · Temple complex
Kushan-Gandhara 3rd c BCE Bronze Age mining → Buddhist 3rd–7th c CE · Gandhara–Sassanian Buddhist (Kushan–Shahi)
Mes Aynak Monastery Complex — major Buddhist settlement (3rd–7th c CE, Bronze Age mines beneath) 40 km SE Kabul, world's 2nd largest copper deposit overlying 100-acre (40 ha) monastery.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Submerged site
Late Period to Persian (664 – 525 BCE) · Saite Egyptian / East Greek mercenary Ionian–Carian
664 BCE Saite Greek mercenary fort at Pelusium gateway — casemate walls half in Pelusiac sebkha –1 to –3 m with Greek pottery.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
EB III to Byzantine · Yamhad/Amorite → Hittite → Neo-Assyrian → Byzantine
Old Babylonian Amanus-pass palace-fortress Tilmen with lion gate, archive and Yamhad vassal capital.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Mississippian Middle Cumberland (1100–1350 CE) · Mississippian (Castalian Springs phase)
Premier Middle Cumberland Mississippian town (1100–1350 CE) centered on mineral spring: two major platform mounds (Mound 1 6 m high 55×45 m, Mound 2 burial 3 m) plus smaller mound, large plaza and…
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Ancient city
Late Postclassic (1470 – 1524 CE) · Kaqchikel Maya
Iximche Alt in Chimaltenango, Guatemala is a Late Postclassic (1470 – 1524 CE) ancient city attributed to Kaqchikel Maya culture.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
New Kingdom 19th–20th Dyn (1279–1070 BCE) · Egyptian New Kingdom imperial
Ramesses II's 10 km² vanished capital – 460 chariot stables and glass factories buried under Delta fields.
🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan · Ancient city
Sogdian 5th c → Western Turk 581–659 → Tang 659–1141 · Sogdian–Western Turk → Tang Chinese — Chuy Valley Silk Road
Ak-Beshim Chu Valley City — ancient Suyab/Suye (5th–12th c CE) Western Turk capital on Chu River at Ak-Beshim, 8 km SW Tokmok, excavated 1938–58 by Bernshtam and 2010s Kyrgyz-German.
🇲🇦 Morocco · Ancient city
Roman to Merinid (1st c CE to 14th c) · Roman / Mauretanian / Merinid Islamic
Roman port Sala Colonia beneath Merinid walled necropolis with stork-colonised minaret and Roman spolia throughout Islamic masonry.
🇮🇳 India · Rock-cut
Maurya → Satavahana 230 BCE–220 CE → Vakataka 250–400 CE · Satavahana Early Buddhist (Hinayana) → Brahmanical
200+ Satavahana rock-cut caves on Nanaghat pass (300 BCE–400 CE) — Naganika Brahmi inscription of Vedic rites.
🇵🇪 Peru · Ancient city
Early Intermediate to Middle Horizon (400 – 800 CE) · Huamachuco / Wari-related
Marcahuamachuco in La Libertad, Peru is a Early Intermediate to Middle Horizon (400 – 800 CE) ancient city attributed to Huamachuco / Wari-related culture.
🇷🇺 Russia · Submerged site
Archaic Greek to Medieval (543 BCE – 10th c. CE) · Ionian Greek / Bosporan / Khazar / Byzantine / Russian
Greatest Greek city of Taman — one third now submerged under Taman Bay containing harbour and lower town.
🇪🇷 Eritrea · Ancient city
Pre-Aksumite D'mt to Aksumite (700 BCE–600 CE) · D'mt / Sabean-Eritrean / Aksumite
Qohaito (Koloe) is a 750 ha pre-Aksumite to Aksumite highland city on the Eritrean plateau edge at 2595 m, flourishing 500 BCE–600 CE as D'mt precursor to Aksum.
🇸🇩 Sudan · Pyramid
Kerma Classic to New Kingdom to Napatan (2500 BCE–750 BCE, plus later) · Kerma and Egyptian colonial (New Kingdom)
12 km Nubian Nile island with Kerma pyramids and New Kingdom pharaonic fortress (2500 BCE–Ottoman).
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Formative to Classic 1500 BCE–400 CE (Olmec 1500–400 BCE, Epi-Olmec 400 BCE–400 CE with Long Count) · Olmec → Epi-Olmec / Izapan (post-Olmec; nexus to early Maya Long Count)
Long-lived Olmec termination and epi-Olmec center bridging Formative to Classic (1500 BCE–400 CE, Long Count Stela C 32 BCE = second-oldest Long Count date in Mesoamerica after Chiapa de Corzo): 2…
🇹🇳 Tunisia · Ancient city
Numidian to Late Antique (4th c BCE-7th c CE; peak 2nd c BCE-3rd c CE) · Numidian / Roman
Royal city Zama Regia.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Late Preclassic – Postclassic (300 BCE–1500 CE, mask palace 300–500 CE) · Maya (Northwestern Yucatán – Acanceh)
Maya town in central-north Yucatán occupied continuously 300–1500 CE with unique layered architecture: Early Classic steep step-pyramid buried under Palace of the Stuccos (1st c.
🇪🇷 Eritrea · Ancient city
Pre-Aksumite Ethio-Sabaean to Late Aksumite (800 BCE–800 CE) · Ethio-Sabaean D'MT / pre-Aksumite → Aksumite
10 ha highland caravans town with Hawulti 5.5 m Sabaean obelisk, Aksumite stelai, palace of Kaskase and dam reservoir.
🇳🇪 Niger · Ancient city
Medieval (10th–16th c) · Tuareg / Songhai / Hausa copper miners
15-km 600-furnace copper metropolis visited by Ibn Battuta 1353 with Kufic mosque 20 m.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Middle Preclassic–Postclassic Maya (700 BCE–1200 CE, flourished 300–900) · Maya (Sarteneja – southern Quintana Roo)
Middle Preclassic to Terminal Classic Maya town (700 BCE–1200 CE, major 300–900) in southern Quintana Roo jungles: 3 temple pyramids (Gran Basamento 7 m high 70 m long, Temple 24 with red-painted…
🇱🇾 Libya · Ancient city
Archaic to Hellenistic (600–250 BCE) · Greek / Hellenistic
Abandoned c.250 BCE lagoon promontory synoecized to Berenice, preserved smash floors under sabkha.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Ptolemaic to Late Roman (3rd c BCE–5th c CE; peak 1st–3rd c CE) · Ptolemaic Egyptian / Roman
Ptolemaic–Roman grain city Karanis with 85 ha mudbrick and papyri archive.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Submerged site
Classical to Byzantine (570 BCE – 785 CE) · Egyptian Greek / Roman / Byzantine
Ptolemaic wine port on Lake Mareotis feeding Alexandria — jetties now reed-submerged –1 to –2 m at Hawariya.
