🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Dazu Rock Carvings
Tang to Southern Song ~650–1252 CE · Chinese esoteric Buddhist (Tang–Song)
50,000 Tantric cliff sculptures — China's last Buddhist rock-cut synthesis at Baoding.
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CategoriesTemple complexes
Sacred precincts, sanctuaries and the architecture of ritual.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Late Classic Maya (700–734 CE) · Maya (Tikal Mutul dynasty)
Classic Maya superstructure 55 m high (45 m pyramid + 12 m temple and 12 m roof comb) on Great Plaza east, funerary pyramid of Jasaw Chan K'awiil I (695–734), entombed vault 6 m under with jade…
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Tang to Southern Song ~650–1252 CE · Chinese esoteric Buddhist (Tang–Song)
50,000 Tantric cliff sculptures — China's last Buddhist rock-cut synthesis at Baoding.
🇸🇰 Slovakia · Temple complex
Great Moravian (late 9th century, c.850–900) · Great Moravian Slavic
The oldest standing church in Slovakia (and possibly in Central Europe north of Danube) — small pre-Romanesque St. Margaret at Kopčany on the Morava floodplain opposite Mikulčice (5 km).
🇵🇪 Peru · Temple complex
Late Intermediate to Inca 1200–1450 CE · Colla (Aymara) succeeded by Inca
12-m funerary towers in finely jointed stone above lake - Andes highest chullpas.
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Satavahana early historic · Hinayana Buddhist
Twin-cave-cluster Buddhist refuge (100 BCE–100 CE) on forested Sahyadri spur between Bhaja and Karla, celebrated for best-preserved early rock-cut chaitya hall besides Karla — daylight-illuminated…
🇫🇷 France · Temple complex
Early Marae 1000–1500 CE classical Polynesian (peak 1350–1773) · Polynesian / Ra'iātean (Ma'ohi)
Polynesia's most sacred marae center (1000–1773 CE) on 31 ha lagoon peninsula tip Taputapuatea, with 60×45 m marae Taputapuatea (stone national marae) and 16 other marae including Hauviri and Opoa,…
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Sixteen Kingdoms to Yuan (397 – 1368 CE) · North Asian Buddhist with Tibetan Yugur later
Thousand Buddha northern cliff with 30 caves and horse-hoof imprint 397–1368 CE.
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Maurya to Gupta, 3rd c. BCE–5th c. CE, Great Stupa Ashoka 260 BCE expanded 2nd c. BCE · Buddhist (Maurya, Shunga, Satavahana, Gupta)
Ashokan hemispherical stupa with four sculpted torana gateways - genesis of Buddhist architecture.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Early Late Classic c. 650–700 CE · Maya (Tikal)
Second tallest Tikal pyramid 57 m high south complex behind Palace: oldest of major Tikal temples (c. 650–700), with two talud-tablero influenced early masks and massive sheer limestone platform.
🇹🇭 Thailand · Temple complex
Khmer Bayon (late 12th–early 13th century CE, Jayavarman VII) · Khmer (westernmost Khmer outpost)
Westernmost Khmer laterite sanctuary (late 12th cent, Jayavarman VII) — 'City of Lions' on Khwae Noi 43 km west of Kanchanaburi.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Archaic to Roman (700 BCE – 400 CE) · Karian–Ionian Iasians with Athenian attachment
Harbour hill temple atop agora overlooking double harbours and garum vats.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Hekatomnid to Roman (351 BCE – 300 CE) · Hekatomnid Karian to Roman Mylasa
Mountain Zeus sanctuary 680 m with Maussollian androns on sacred way from Milas.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Late Classic Maya c. 700 CE (c. 734 dedication?) · Maya (Tikal)
Western twin of Temple I: 38 m high pyramid with temple summit south of Great Plaza (facing east toward Temple I), built for wife of Jasaw Chan K'awiil I (Lady 12 Macaw).
🇲🇽 Mexico · Temple complex
Late Classic (Rio Bec–Chenes) · Maya (Rio Bec)
Balamku — 16 m jaguar stucco frieze in Calakmul forest.
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Early Chalukya 7th–8th century CE, peak 740–760 CE · Hindu (Shaiva, Vaishnava) under Chalukya Vikramaditya II
Chalukya structural temples laboratory fusing Nagara and Dravida shikhara styles.
🇮🇹 Italy · Temple complex
Classical 430–420 BCE temple, theater 3rd c. BCE Hellenistic · Elymian (Trojan-origin indigenous beholden to Greek culture)
Unfinished 5th c. Doric temple and mountaintop theater of Trojan-descended Elymians.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Archaic to Roman (600 BCE – 250 CE) · Milesian Greek to Hellenistic Seleucid to Roman
Eastern hypaethral adyton with sacred spring and stadium of Branchidae oracle.
🇨🇳 China · Archaeological wonder
Ming to Qing 1406–1420 construction, occupied 1420–1912 CE · Ming / Qing Chinese imperial
Ming-Qing imperial palace (1420–1912, 961 buildings, 9,999 rooms) occupying 72 ha within Beijing's inner city, the world's largest wooden palace ensemble.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Hellenistic (300–150 BCE) foundation over Archaic · Hellenistic Lysimachan Heracleans with Karian memory
Athena peripteros 6×11 on cyclopean walled acropolis above Bafa Lake Endymion heroon.
🇱🇰 Sri Lanka · Ancient city
Anuradhapura Period 377 BCE–1017 CE (peak 1st–10th c CE) · Sinhalese Theravada Buddhist (Anuradhapura Kingdom)
Sinhalese capital for 1,400 years (377 BCE–1017 CE) and great Theravada monastic center with three 4th–2nd c BCE brick dagabas among tallest premodern structures: Jetavanaramaya (originally 122 m,…
🇮🇹 Italy · Temple complex
Archaeic-Classical Greek 600–450 BCE · Greek (Achaean colonists) then Lucanian and Roman
Mainland Italy's three perfect Greek Doric temples, era 550–460 BCE.
🇰🇭 Cambodia · Temple complex
Khmer Empire 893–1150 CE (peak 11th–12th c) · Khmer Hindu (Shaiva)
Dangrek escarpment Shiva temple (9th–12th c) aligned 800 m north-south axial causeway stairway rising 525 m, built by six kings (Yasovarman I to Suryavarman II).
🇨🇳 China · Temple complex
Northern Wei to Tang 493–907 CE (peak Northern Wei 493–534, Tang 618–907) · Chinese Buddhist (Wei-Tang)
1-km limestone gorge with 1345 caves and niches, 2,345 caves total? Actually 1,345 caves, 43 pagodas and 100,000+ Buddhist images (largest Vairocana 17.14 m) carved 493–907 CE from Northern Wei…
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Sixteen Kingdoms to Tang ~384–907 CE · Chinese Buddhist Northern Dynasties
Stacked-cliff wheat-plant-shaped grotto city with 7,200 sculptures on bolted plank galleries.
