🇮🇹 Italy · Ancient city
Ancient City of Source Mesa
Classical Antiquity (800 BCE–500 CE) · Classical
Ancient City of Source Mesa in Sicily, Italy is a Classical Antiquity (800 BCE–500 CE) ancient city attributed to Classical culture.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Tell
Deir Alla
Late Bronze to Islamic (c.1600 BCE–1400 CE; peak Iron 1200–760 BCE, Balaam c.800) · LB Canaanite → Iron Ammon/Gilead → Persian → Hellenistic
Deir Alla in Jordan Valley is famed for 1967 Balaam inscription — plaster wall with earliest Aramaic/Hebrew prophetic text 'Balaam son of Beor, seer of the gods...
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Girnavaz
Early Bronze Age to Iron Age (c.3000–600 BCE) · Hurrian → Mittanian → Neo-Assyrian
Nusaybin palatial tell 13 m high (Mitanni–Assyrian palace, Nuzi ware, tablets) on Tigris watershed.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Khafajah
Late Uruk to Old Babylonian (c.3400–1700 BCE; peak Early Dynastic) · Uruk → Jemdet Nasr → Early Dynastic (Akkadian/Sumerian Diyala) → Akkadian → Old Babylonian/Eshnunna
Diyala Sequence key town with 10-phase Sin Temple and Samsuiluna earthquake horizon.
🇰🇭 Cambodia · Temple complex
Yeay Lao Group (Sambor Prei Kuk)
Chenla (Isanapura 616–635 CE) to Angkor · Chenla (Isanapura, King Isanavarman I)
Yeay Lao is one of three walled cities of Isanapura (Samor Prei Kuk, UNESCO 2017) — Chenla capital 616–635 CE, 250×250 m walled enclosure with 3 octagonal brick sanctuaries.
🇲🇦 Morocco · Ancient city
Banasa — Thamusida Upstream Twin Port Colony
Mauretanian capital briefly → Roman colony Julia Valentia Banasa 33 BCE · Mauretanian Bocchus → Roman colony
Banasa excavated by Thouvenot 1930s, Tabula Banasitana 177 CE citizenship tablet for Zegrenses.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Sapinuwa
Hittite Empire (c.1600–1200 BCE; peak Sapinuwa 1500–1200 BCE as second capital) · Hittite (Old → Empire)
Sapinuwa (Ortaköy, Çorum) is the Hittite Empire's second capital and military–religious administration — Building A with 3000+ Hittite cuneiform tablets (larges...
🇵🇸 Palestine · Tell
Tell el-Farah North
Neolithic to Iron Age (c.7000–700 BCE; peak Israelite Tirzah 1000–800 BCE) · Neolithic → Chalcolithic → EB → Israelite (Tirzah, capital to 800) → Assyrian
Tell el-Farah (North) in Tirzah valley (likely biblical Tirzah, capital of Northern Israel before Samaria) with Neolithic village (Lodian) through EB, Middle Br...
🇸🇩 Sudan · Ancient city
Meroe Town — Royal City North of Pyramids with Temple of Amun
Meroitic (600 BCE–350 CE capital after 300 BCE shift from Napata) · Meroitic royal capital (Kandake city)
Meroe town excavated by Garstang & Sayce 1911–14, iron capital 200k t slag, temple of Amun 600 m.
🇬🇷 Greece · Ancient city
Megara Hyblaea — Sicily
Archaic to Classical (728–483 BCE) · Corinthian–Megarian Greek colony
Megara Hyblaea — Sicily in Sicily (Italian heritage), Greece is a Archaic to Classical (728–483 BCE) ancient-city attributed to Corinthian–Megarian Greek colony.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
El-Wad Cave (Mugharet el-Wad)
Middle Palaeolithic to Natufian (c.200 ka–9600 BCE) · Mousterian → Aurignacian → Natufian
Karst cave at the mouth of Nahal Me’arot, type site of the Natufian culture (excavated Dorothy Garrod 1929–1934). 4 m st...
🇵🇪 Peru · Ancient city
Gran Pajatén — Chachapoya Mosaic Round Houses
Chachapoya late (1300–1470 CE) · Chachapoya later Inca fringe
Abiseo Gran Pajatén discovered by Savoy 1963, excavated 1985, mosaic fretwork with human heads, UNESCO 1990 Rio Abiseo.
🇮🇱 Israel · Tell
Tel Miqne-Ekron
MB to Iron Age (c.2000 BCE–700 BCE; Philistine Ekron 1200–604 BCE) · Canaanite → Philistine (Ekron) → Judah → Assyrian
Tel Miqne is Philistine Ekron, one of the Pentapolis (Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath, Gaza). Lower town 20 ha with 110 olive-oil installations (largest ancient o...
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan · Ancient city
Yerkurgan
Hellenistic to Kushan (320 BCE–500 CE) · Seleucids to Kushans (Yuezhi)
Yerkurgan is a Hellenistic–Kushan city (30 ha) near Karshi with Kushan palace, Greek Corinthian capitals, and Buddhist temple on the Silk Road.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Tell Harmal
Old Babylonian (c.2000–1750 BCE; peak c.1800 BCE) · Isin-Larsa → Old Babylonian (Amorite-Eshnunna)
Best-preserved Old Babylonian planned town (2.25 ha, 150×150 m orthogonal walled) with twin temples (Šara, Bēlet-Agade), admin complex (3000 tablets including a...
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Sagalassos — Antonine Nymphaeum Upper Agora
Hellenistic to Early Byzantine (333 BCE–700 CE peak 2nd c. CE) · Pisidian → Roman Imperial
Toros Pisidian city excavated by Waelkens 1990–, earthquake 540 CE disruption, Antonine cascade reconstructed 2014.
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Susa Acropolis
Ubaid to Islamic (c.4200 BCE–1300 CE; peak Elamite–Achaemenid) · Susa I–II → Elamite → Achaemenid → Parthian–Sasanian → Islamic
Elamite and Achaemenid acropolis (14 ha, 25 m high) at Susa, capital of Elam and Darius I winter capital. French excavat...
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Ephesus Arsinoeion-Octagon — Sanctuary Terrace of Arsinoe
Hellenistic to Roman (288 BCE – 262 CE) · Ptolemaic to Roman Ephesian
Curetes terrace with 36 m Arsinoeion rotunda and Octagon princess tomb.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Harran — First Islamic University Excavation Trench
Eblaite to Ottoman; University 8th–12th c. CE · Umayyad / Abbasid (Harran School)
Plain city excavated by Lloyd & Brice 1951–56 and recent Harran University, birthplace of al-Battani, Sabian moon temple underlying.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Koumbi Saleh — Ghana Empire Capital Kumbi
Ghana Empire (300–1240 CE peak 800–1070 CE Wattasi/Awdaghust description) · Soninke Ghana (Awdaghust) → Wagadu
Koumbi Saleh excavated by Bonnel de Mézières 1914 and Berthier 1970s, Ghana capital 800–1240.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Sarissa
Hittite (c.1600–1180 BCE; peak 1500–1200 as weather-god city) · Hittite (Empire, weather-god cult)
Sarissa (Kuşaklı) on a windswept 1600-m ridge is the Hittite sacred city of the weather-god — planned Hittite city with 2-km wall, dam and granary, built under...
🇱🇾 Libya · Ancient city
Tocra — Taucheira Hellenistic Fort Byzantium Bolli
Greek Archaic (510 BCE Battus II colonization) → Byzantine Justinian wall 530 CE · Greek Cyrene colonization Dorieus? Taucheira 510 BCE
Tocra Boardman 1950s Taucheira Greek 510.
🇱🇾 Libya · Ancient city
Germa — Garamantian Capital Mudbrick Fortress
Garamantian (500 BCE–600 CE) capital; foggara peak 200 BCE · Garamantian (Berber Saharan state)
Germa excavated by Daniels 1970s and Mattingly 1990s, foggaras 5th c. BCE, 100k tumuli field nearby.
🇪🇸 Spain · Ancient city
La Bastida de Totana — Argaric Fortified City
El Argar Bronze Age (2200–1550 BCE) · El Argar
Totana hill city excavated by Lull & Micó since 2009, type-site of Argaric urbanism, with fortified acropolis and extramural cemeteries.