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CategoriesBuried cities
Settlements sealed under ash, sand or silt and excavated centuries later.
🇬🇷 Greece · Submerged site
Mycenaean to Late Roman (Opus Mycenaean – 426 BCE drown) · Locrian Greek / Mycenaean / Classical
426 BCE quake drowned Lokrian Opus — harbour mole and isthmus now 3–4 m down off Atalanti island.
🇪🇹 Ethiopia · Ancient city
Classical (regional) · Classical
Central Lalibela Citadel II — Lalibela (59-30) at Lalibela, Ethiopia is a Classical (regional) ancient city of the Classical tradition, built c. 200 CE for citadel and associated settlement.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
EBA to Iron Age (Karaz → Mitanni → Assyrian) · Karaz (Kura-Araxes) → Mitanni Hurrian → Assyrian Iron
Tigris ritual mound (2800 BCE–Iron) with LBA pillared cult hall — bell-ritual and Mitanni seals on EBA Karaz village, Ilısu Laneri project.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Buried city
Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Derr — Buried Temple North Ancillary Pylon (Nubia, Border) in Aswan, Derr, New Derr, Egypt is a Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) buried city attribu…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Late Chalcolithic (Uruk) through Middle Bronze Age; EBA I–III urban · Uruk → EBA Euphrates urban → MBA Syro-Anatolian
Euphrates bend urban tell (c.3500–1600 BCE) with EBA II–III walled lower town — Chicago Atatürk Dam salvage type-site.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze (3500–2200 BCE) · Late Chalcolithic North Central Anatolian → EBA extramural elite cemetery
Horoztepe Höyük Tokat Burial Mound is the extramural-cemetery knoll 200 m from Horoztepe settlement on the Kelkit plain 2 km northeast of Erbaa.
🇪🇹 Ethiopia · Ancient city
Iron Age (regional) · Iron Age
Inner Lalibela Ridge Outer — Lalibela (59-31) at Lalibela, Ethiopia is a Iron Age (regional) ancient city of the Iron Age tradition, built c. 800 BCE for ridge and associated settlement.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Buried city
Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Tell Atrib — Buried Mudbrick Platform (Central Delta, Egypt) in Qalyubia, Tell Atrib, Egypt is a Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) buried city attrib…
🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Sothi / Pre-Harappan to Mature Harappan 3500–1900 BCE · Indus Valley (Harappan) with Sothi antecedent
Major provincial capital of the Indus Valley Civilization on the southern Ghaggar bank in Hanumangarh, Rajasthan, occupied from c.3500 BCE.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Buried city
Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Kazane Höyük — West Workshop Quarter (Şanlıurfa) in Şanlıurfa, Kazane Höyük, Turkey is a Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) buried city attributed to …
🇨🇦 Canada · Ancient village
Viking Age 1000–1006 CE (Norse Vinland exploration) · Norse Greenlanders (Icelandic Norse under Leifr Eiríksson / Thorfinn Karlsefni saga context)
Only confirmed Norse village in North America and earliest European settlement (~1000–1006 CE): eight turf-and-timber sod houses (halls 25×5 m, iron smithy, carpentry shed, charcoal kilns) on Épaves…
🇱🇰 Sri Lanka · Buried city
Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Sigiriya — Buried Garden North Terrace (Sri Lanka) in Central, Sigiriya, Sri Lanka is a Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) buried city attributed to B…
🇵🇰 Pakistan · Buried city
Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Taxila — Bhir Mound Buried Street North (Gandhara) in Punjab, Taxila, Bhir Mound, Pakistan is a Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) buried city attribu…
🇸🇾 Syria · Buried city
Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Tell Mardikh (Ebla) — Lower Town Buried Sector South in Idlib, Tell Mardikh, Syria is a Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) buried city attributed to B…
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Hellenistic-Parthian-Roman · Seleucid → Parthian → Roman
Macedonian-Euphrates cliff city (303 BCE–256 CE) called 'Pompeii of the Desert' — garrison of Parthian-Roman frontier buried under a Roman siege embankment that preserved the world's earliest…
🇸🇩 Sudan · Buried city
Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Jebel Mokram — Buried Village North (Kassala, Sudan) in Kassala, Jebel Mokram, Sudan is a Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) buried city attributed to…
🇹🇯 Tajikistan · Buried city
Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Penjikent — Buried House Complex North (Sogdiana, Tajikistan) in Sughd, Penjikent, Tajikistan is a Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) buried city attr…
🇮🇳 India · Buried city
Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Rakhigarhi — Mound 4 Buried Citadel (Haryana, India) in Haryana, Hisar, Rakhigarhi, India is a Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) buried city attribut…
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Late Epipalaeolithic/Natufian to Pre-Pottery Neolithic B · Natufian-derived Neolithic; Euphrates Levantine
Two-period tell on the Euphrates now submerged under Lake Assad: an Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherer village (c.13,500–12,800 cal BP) and a Pre-Pottery Neolithic village (c.11,100–9,300 cal BP) famed…
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
EBA-MBA-LBA (c.3500-1200 BCE) · Euphrates EBA to Old Babylonian/Mitannian
Tell Atij (Hassek region) — buried eba-mba-lba tell/village at Hasakah Governorate.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Late Postclassic Aztec (Mexica) · Mexica (Aztec) Triple Alliance
Dual shrine pyramid (Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, 1325–1519 CE) — heart of island city Tenochtitlan (population 200,000 in 1519, larger than most European capitals on Lake Texcoco), built in seven…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Early Bronze to Crusader (3000 BCE–1300 CE) · Syrian EBA → Hittite → Neo-Assyrian → Crusader County of Edessa
Tilbeşar Lower Town sprawls below the 15-m fortress mound of Turbessel — Crusader capital of the County of Edessa.
🇸🇴 Somalia · Buried city
Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Berbera — Buried Early Port North (Somalia) in Woqooyi Galbeed, Berbera, Somalia is a Neolithic to Bronze Age (6000–1200 BCE) buried city attributed to Bro…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Early Bronze to Iron (3000 BCE–600 BCE) · EBA Syrian → Hittite → Neo-Hittite Melid → Phrygian
Karahöyük-Elbistan Plains Satellite is a 1.6-ha mound 6 km southwest of Karahöyük-Elbistan citadel on the upper Ceyhan plain (1130 m).
