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CategoriesTemple complexes
Sacred precincts, sanctuaries and the architecture of ritual.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Archaic to Roman (oracle peak 100–200 CE) · Ionian Greek, Colophon's oracle
Claros secondary Doric prophecy hall with adyton crevice and 1.2-km sacred road to Notion, 1st CE domitianic.
🇧🇿 Belize · Ancient city
Middle Preclassic – Terminal Classic (c.800 BCE–1000 CE) Lowland Maya · Maya (Lowland)
El Pilar straddles the Belize-Guatemala international boundary on a 340m-high escarpment 12 km north of San Ignacio, Belize.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Archaic to Roman (Carian to Imperial) · Carian, Hellenistic, Roman
Selimiye plain Corinthian Zeus Lepsynos 2nd CE with 16 standing columns, best in Anatolia, 12 km NW Milas.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Submerged site
Late Pharaonic to Late Byzantine (380 BCE – 8th c. CE) · Egyptian-Greek / Greco-Roman / Byzantine
Canopic Isis oracle town adjoining Heracleion — sanctuary and quays 5–8 m down in Abu Qir Bay.
🇬🇷 Greece · Temple complex
Archaic to Roman Imperial (638-year build) · Athenian tyranny, Hellenistic Seleucid, Roman Imperial
638-year colossal: Pisistratid → Antiochus–Cossutius → Hadrian, 8×20 Corinthian 17 m columns, largest mainland.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Archaic to Antonine (Lycia) · Lycian Greek and Roman Lycia
Lycian League capital oracle Ionic 6×11, winter seat of Delos Apollo equal to Delphi.
🇬🇷 Greece · Temple complex
Geometric to Medieval · Mycenaean, Dorian Rhodian, Byzantine, Knights
Rhodes 267-m Filerimos Doric Athena Polias 3rd BCE atop Minoan–Knights stratigraphy with sacred road and fountain.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Northern Dynasties (Northern Wei late) · Tuoba Wei (Xianbei) Buddhist with Han artisan school
UNESCO Yungang western 15-cave zone 494–525 with central-pillar and collapsed colossus.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Late Preclassic – Postclassic (c.300 BCE–1519 CE) continuous; Early Classic–Late Classic peak · Maya (East Coast / Southern Lowland)
Muyil (Chunyaxché, Chan Muuch) is the long-lived lowland Maya city on the karst ridge at the Muyil lagoon inside the Sian Ka'an Biosphere, Quintana Roo (10 m).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Late Classical to Hellenistic (350–133 BCE) with Roman upkeep to 600 CE · Ionian Greek (Milesian) and Hellenistic Attalid
Alexander-dedicated Athena temple 334 BCE by Pytheos and pristine Hippodamian grid city.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Archaic (600–500 BCE) · Aeolian Greek under Lydian and later Persian rule (Assian polis)
Only Archaic Doric temple in Anatolia 530 BCE, sculpted architrave atop 238-m acropolis.
🇬🇷 Greece · Temple complex
Archaic to Hellenistic (700–200 BCE) · Athenian (Ionic) — Artemis Brauronia
420 BCE Doric 6×11 with 44-m pi stoa where Athenian bear-girls (arktoi) danced initiation, Iphigenia myth.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Roman Imperial (Hadrianic) · Roman Mysia (Kyzikos neocorate)
Hadrian's isthmus temple 50×92 m colossus on Kapıdağ isthmus, largest Marmara temple.
🇵🇪 Peru · Ancient city
Early Intermediate 400 BCE–450 CE (Paracas–Proto-Nazca to Early Nazca, peak 100 BCE–450 CE) · Nazca (Nasca, south coast)
Capital and pilgrimage center of Nazca culture (400 BCE–500 CE) – 24 km² desert metropolis with 34+ pyramidal adobe mounds (Great Pyramid 22 m high, 100×150 m base; Orange Pyramid), plazas (Great…
🇮🇷 Iran · Temple complex
Hellenistic–Parthian to Sassanian (contested) · Seleucid Greek–Parthian–Sassanian; Anahita cult syncretism
210×224 m terrace on Khorasan Road, Anahita water-temple vs. Parthian palace debate, double Ionic colonnade.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Sixteen Kingdoms to Tang (Northern Liang 420 peak) · Hexi Corridor mixed Han–Tibetan Buddhist (Juqu Mengxun lineage)
Mati Si southern 12-cave cliff 420 CE Thousand-Buddha with hoof-print legend and hanging plankway.
🇵🇪 Peru · Temple complex
Late Preceramic – Initial Period (c.3500–1200 BCE) Andes · Norte Chico – Chavín-related Late Preceramic
Buena Vista in the middle Chillón Valley is a Late Preceramic fox-temple pyramid famous for its precocious solstice astronomy.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Hellenistic (Rhodian Peraia) · Rhodian Greeks (Dorian)
Rhodian Peraia harbour sanctuary Doric 6×11 closing Bozukbuk bay opposite Rhodes.
🇨🇳 China · Temple complex
Tang to Southern Song · Late Tang to Song Sichuan Buddhist (Wei Junjing to Zhao Zhifeng line)
UNESCO Beishan's 290-niche scholar's cliff 2 km north of Dazu with Song filial piety reliefs.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Geometric to Hellenistic (1100–133 BCE) · Ionian Greek (Kolophonian)
Ionian interior capital 12-city league famed for cavalry and Claros oracle mother city.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Hellenistic to Early Roman (Seleucid to Julio-Claudian) · Isaurian–Cilician priest state, Seleucid and Roman Cilicia
Taurus priest-kingdom hilltop Corinthian Zeus temple 6×12 with Zeus lightning entablature, Olba.
🇪🇹 Ethiopia · Temple complex
Aksumite to Zagwe (6th c–12th c; core 6th c Nine Saints) · Ethiopian Orthodox (Aksumite Christian) monastic
Amba-top monastery accessible only by 15 m leather rope, founded 6th c by Nine Saint Aregawi on precipice with Aksumite wood-monkey-head church.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Archaic to Byzantine (1100 BCE – 600 CE) · Ionian Greek (Erythraean)
Erythraean peninsula Athena cliff temple and Sibyl throne opposite Chios.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Geometric to Archaic (Old Smyrna) · Ionian Greek (Aiolian foundation)
Bayraklı 630 BCE hekatompedon Athena with Aeolic capitals, earliest Ionian temple on Old Smyrna 8th BCE walls.
