🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Ouadane (Wadan)
Medieval to Early Modern (12th–19th c) · Berber (Sanhaja) / Arab / Almoravid
Almoravid twin-ksar 12th c on Adrar scarp with 13-m minaret and caravan cisterns 300 m.
✓VerifiedUNESCO
Search places, or jump to a section
CategoriesArchaeological wonders
Places that defy a simple label.
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan · Ancient city
Khwarezmshah to Golden Horde 995–1388 · Khwarezmshah / Seljuk / Golden Horde
Lost capital of Khwarezm in Amu Darya delta, flourishing 10th–14th c. with 60 m Kutlug Timur minaret tallest in Central Asia and Turabek Khanum mausoleum (1360s) with world's most complex girikh dome…
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Medieval to Early Modern (12th–19th c) · Berber (Sanhaja) / Arab / Almoravid
Almoravid twin-ksar 12th c on Adrar scarp with 13-m minaret and caravan cisterns 300 m.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Archaeological wonder
Epiclassic Bajío 600–900 CE · Bajío Tradition (Northern frontier)
Hilltop city with 1,324 rock-carved building models, 600–900 CE.
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient village
Fort Ancient 1000–1750 CE, Mississippian-influenced Late Prehistoric · Fort Ancient (Central Algonquian, Fort Ancient tradition)
Reconstructed Fort Ancient circular village (3 acres) on Great Miami River terrace at Dayton: central plaza 42 m diameter ringed by post-mold houses, stockade with bastions, and reconstructed cedar…
🇬🇷 Greece · Archaeological wonder
Middle Bronze Age (2100–1550 BCE) · Middle Bronze Age
Ancient City of Tre-Fell in Thessaly, Greece is a Middle Bronze Age (2100–1550 BCE) archaeological wonder attributed to Middle Bronze Age culture.
🇺🇸 United States · Archaeological wonder
Pueblo II–III Bonito 1000–1150 CE · Ancestral Pueblo (Chacoan)
Chacoan Sun Dagger butte: three slabs create dagger beam on spirals marking solstices and lunar standstill.
🇮🇹 Italy · Megalith
Late Neolithic – Early Bronze Age, Ozieri/Abealzu-Filigosa (~4000–2700 BCE) · Ozieri (Late Neolithic Sardinian)
Mysterious 36-by-29-m truncated step pyramid of limestone fill on the Sardinian plain, accessed via a 42-m ramp to a summit altar where sacrifice deposits and a sandstone menhir were found.
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia · Archaeological wonder
4th century BCE – 4th century CE (Kinda and Qahtan kingdom) · South Arabian–North Arabian (Kinda, Madh'hij)
Capital of the Kinda kingdom straddling the Wadi ad-Dawasir caravan route, where Saudi–German excavations uncovered a limestone temple to Kahl, residential quarters, a dam and thousands of…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Archaeological wonder
Old Kingdom to Roman (2700 BCE–500 CE; peak 1500–30 BCE) · Ancient Egyptian / Roman
Syene (Aswan) granite quarries are Old–Ptolemaic hardstone source producing 100-m-long unfinished obelisk of Hatshepsut (1,200 t) abandoned in bedrock crack, plus sarcophagi, colossi and pavements…
🇲🇱 Mali · Archaeological wonder
Islamic Saharan (10th–16th c. CE; peak 13th–15th c.) · Sanhaja Berber / Songhai
Teghaza (Taghaza) is a Saharan salt-mining ghost town on Sebkha salt pan 200 km north of Timbuktu, medieval (10th–16th c.) salt slab quarrying centre described by Ibn Battuta 1352 and Leo Africanus…
🇯🇴 Jordan · Earthwork
Pre-Pottery Neolithic to Bronze Age (~7000–3000 BCE) · Neolithic–Chalcolithic hunter-pastoralist
Over 5,800 kite structures sprawl across the harraat basalt deserts of Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, each comprising two converging low walls up to 5 km long funneling gazelle herds into a stone…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Temple complex
Old Kingdom 5th Dynasty (2455–2425 BCE) · Ancient Egyptian (Old Kingdom solar cult)
Abu Ghurab Sun Temple of Niuserre (5th Dynasty, 2455–2425 BCE) is the best preserved of six sun temples (Userkaf and Niuserre survive).
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient village
Neolithic to Late Iron (1800 BCE–1500 CE) · Hadjer Lamis / Kotoko ancestral
3-m 115×85 m stratified mound establishing Chad Basin Neolithic-to-Iron sequence 1800 BCE–1500 CE.
🇨🇾 Cyprus · Archaeological wonder
Yayoi (300 BCE–300 CE) · Yayoi
Grotto Archaeological Complex in Paphos District, Cyprus is a Yayoi (300 BCE–300 CE) archaeological wonder attributed to Yayoi culture.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Temple complex
Middle Kingdom, 12th Dynasty c.1860–1814 BCE · Ancient Egyptian (Amenemhat III)
Herodotus's 3000-room labyrinth beside Faiyum now rubble field.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Hellenistic Commagene (c.62 BCE under Antiochos I Theos) · Commagenian (Armenian/Greek/Persian syncretic) Hellenistic
Hierotheseion (tomb-sanctuary) of Antiochos I of Commagene (69–34 BCE), Nemrut Dağı tops 2,150 m peak with 50 m tumulus of crushed rock surrounded by three terraces bearing 8–10 m colossal seated…
🇧🇷 Brazil · Archaeological wonder
Andean Formative (1800–200 BCE) · Andean Formative
Nagar Pediment Archaeological Complex in Piauí, Brazil is a Andean Formative (1800–200 BCE) archaeological wonder attributed to Andean Formative culture.
🇴🇲 Oman · Hydraulic works
Iron Age (1000 BCE) to present · Omani, Iron Age to Islamic
Approximately 3,000 still-active aflaj (singular falaj) thread Oman, of which five exemplars — Daris, Al-Khatmeen, Al-Malki, Al-Jeela and Al-Muyassar — are inscribed.
🇵🇪 Peru · Hydraulic works
Paracas to Early Nazca ~300 BCE–600 CE · Nazca (and earlier Paracas)
Nazca spiral puquio filtration galleries - 600 m underground still watering desert after 1,400 years.
🇰🇷 South Korea · Archaeological wonder
Late Bronze Age (1550–1050 BCE) · Late Bronze Age
White South Archaeological Complex in Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea is a Late Bronze Age (1550–1050 BCE) archaeological wonder attributed to Late Bronze Age culture.
🇮🇷 Iran · Archaeological wonder
Classical Antiquity (800 BCE–500 CE) · Classical
Ancient City of Qanat Grove in Fars Province, Iran is a Classical Antiquity (800 BCE–500 CE) archaeological wonder attributed to Classical culture.
🇮🇳 India · Rock art
Upper Paleolithic to Medieval (100,000 BCE – 2nd century BCE – 1500 CE) · South Asian hunter-gatherer to early historic
Cluster of about 750 sandstone shelters on the Vindhyan fringe with a layered sequence of paintings spanning Mesolithic hunting scenes to historic horsemen and battle processions.
🇨🇳 China · Rock art
Late Neolithic to Qin–Han (3000 BCE – 200 CE) · Qiang-related pastoralist Hexi corridor culture
Two-panel deer and archer ochre hillside at Yellow River east bank, 3000–4000 BP.
🇯🇵 Japan · Megalith
Late Jomon 2000–1500 BCE · Jomon Late
Twin Late Jomon double-stone circles (2000–1500 BCE) — Manza (46 m dia) and Nonakado (42 m dia) placed either side of prefectural road at Oyu, Kazuno, each concentric with sundial-like 2.1 m central…
