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CategoriesAncient cities
Capitals, ports and metropolises that rose, fell and were found again.
🇳🇬 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–...
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Bagratuni Armenian Kingdom · Armenian
Medieval Armenian capital (961–1045) at peak 100,000 inhabitants, Bagratuni palaces, Cathedral of Ani (1001), Tigran Honents church with frescoes, double city walls.
🇱🇾 Libya · Ancient city
Garamantian to Islamic (5th c. BCE–present) · Garamantian / Berber / Islamic
Herodotean palm grove oasis with foggaras and ksour granaries (200 chambers).
🇱🇾 Libya · Ancient city
Roman (Augustan–7th c. CE) · Roman (Tripolitania)
Syrtic frontier fort at Bu Grada lagoon terminus of limes road.
🇱🇾 Libya · Ancient city
Greek / Roman · Greek (Cyrenean)
Agrarian interior capital of Pentapolis founded 560 BCE by Cyrene exiles, mother of Ptolemais port. Agora terrace, Amun temple, theatre and Hellenistic walls.
🇹🇳 Tunisia · Ancient city
Numidian to Byzantine (3rd c. BCE–7th c. CE) · Numidian / Roman
Ridge municipium controlling Dougga plain with triple arch and capitol.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Ancient city
Nabataean to Roman (312 BCE–363 CE earthquake) · Nabataean / Arab
Nabataean caravan city (312 BCE–106 CE) carved into sandstone cliffs: Al-Khazneh Treasury, Theatre, Monastery Ad-Deir, Royal Tombs, and hydraulic system capturing desert flash floods.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Old to Middle Kingdom / Late Period · Egyptian
Capital of Heracleopolitan dynasty (Dyn 9–10, 2160–2055 BCE) whose 'Instruction for Merikare' defines First Intermediate Period.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Pharaonic to Byzantine (New Kingdom – 7th c CE; Ptolemaic port 300 BCE) · Egyptian / Ptolemaic / Roman / Byzantine
Egypt's western gate on Mediterranean lagoon, Paraetonium began as Ramesses II's western chain fort, then great Ptolemaic lagoon port with Alexander–Cleopatra stopover tradition; l...
🇯🇲 Jamaica · Submerged site
Early Modern (1518–1692) · English colonial / pirate
Infamous pirate capital of Caribbean ('Wickedest City in the World'), 2/3 slid into harbour by liquefaction in 1692 earthquake + tsunami, preserving 17th c storehouses under sediment - 'Pompeii of…
🇲🇦 Morocco · Ancient city
Roman / Merinid · Roman / Berber
Roman frontier city at sea, southernmost colonia of Tingitana. Hadrianic walls, capitol, nymphaeum and Merinid necropolis reusing gate.
🇬🇭 Ghana · Ancient city
Akan gold trade (c. 1000–1750 CE; peak 14th–17th c) · Akan (Bron) / Hausa Wangara merchants
Sprawling 45 ha Akan trading city with four ethnic quarters (Brong, Kramo Wangara Muslim, artisans, market), producing brass crucibles and glass beads for gold–kola caravans to Jen...
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Hausa–Gobir kingdom (c. 1450–1808 reform jihad; abandonment 1808) · Hausa-Gobir (king Bawa Jangwarzo, Yunfa vs Usman dan Fodio)
Final capital of animist Gobir kingdom at Al Kalawa, with 4.5 km desert mud walls and palace tell where Sultan Yunfa hosted then fought Usman dan Fodio before 1808 Sokoto jihad cap...
