🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Emar
Bronze Age (c.2000–1187 BCE), peak Late Bronze 1500–1187 BCE · Amorite → Mittanian → Hittite viceregal
Euphrates LB city 10 ha (1200 tablets, Baal/Astarte twin temples) on Lake Assad shore.
🇬🇪 Georgia · Submerged site
Phasis – Colchian Capital Port at Poti
Colchian Iron Age to Byzantine (6th c. BCE – 6th c. CE) · Colchian / Milesian Greek
Royal Colchian Aeëtes' capital — ashlar quay –2 to –5 m under modern Poti port fill at Rioni mouth.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Tell Umm al-Marra
Early Bronze Age III–IV (c.2700–2000 BCE) · Syrian EBA (Ebla–Marra corridor)
Jabbul EB walled town 20 ha (c.2700–2000 BCE, shaft tombs with equid teams, gold jewellery).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Archaeological wonder
Gordion – Phrygian Capital
Early Phrygian Iron Age (~1200–700 BCE; Midas tumulus ~740 BCE) · Phrygian (Balkan–Anatolian)
Phrygian capital at the Sangarius bend where Rodney Young's Penn excavations revealed a burnt 800 BCE citadel with polished pebble mosaics – the oldest known – and the great Tumulus MM: 53-m high and…
🇸🇪 Sweden · Ancient city
Birka Viking Town on Björkö
Viking Age (750–975 CE) · Scandinavian Viking Age
Viking Age emporium on Björkö island in Lake Mälaren, founded c.750 CE and abandoned c.975, with fortified town area (Borg), harbour, cemeteries of over 3,000 graves and famous chamber grave Bj 581.
🇷🇺 Russia · Ancient city
Derbent — Naryn-Kala Citadel and Double Walls (Caspian Gates)
Caucasian Albania to Sasanian to Islamic (c.100 BCE–19th c.; peak Sasanian 6th c.) · Caucasian Albanian → Sasanian Persian → Khazar → Arab → Shirvanshah → Russian
Sasanian 3.6 km double-wall Caspian Gates with Naryn-Kala citadel sealing Caucasus passage.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Carchemish Outer Town
Neo-Hittite Iron I–II (1200–717 BCE) over Late Bronze · Neo-Hittite / Aramaean
Carchemish Outer Town in Gaziantep Province, Euphrates ford, Turkey is a Neo-Hittite Iron I–II (1200–717 BCE) over Late Bronze ancient city attributed to Neo-Hittite / Aramaean.
🇱🇧 Lebanon · Ancient city
Byblos
Neolithic to Medieval (8800 BCE–present; urban from c.5000 BCE) · Neolithic / Canaanite / Phoenician / Egyptian / Roman / Crusader
Continuously inhabited since Neolithic, Byblos is one of the oldest cities in the world. Phoenician port that gave the Bible its name (byblos = papyrus), with layers from Neolithic, Chalcolithic,…
🇧🇬 Bulgaria · Archaeological wonder
Perperikon Thracian Rock City
Chalcolithic to Late Antiquity (5000 BCE – 400 CE; rock city peak 1500–500 BCE) · Thracian (Bessi tribe) to Roman and Byzantine
Rocky massif on the Perperek gold–bearing ridge where Thracians carved a palace-temple complex into the living rock: hall of prophecies claimed as the sanctuary of Dionysus visited by Alexander…
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Gezer
Early Bronze to Iron Age · Canaanite → Egyptian → Israelite
Hilltop Canaanite tel (c.3500–586 BCE) with the Gezer Calendar (10th c. BCE, earliest Hebrew inscription — agricultural almanac) and bronze-age standing-stone alignment: 10 monolithic massebot (up to…
🇱🇧 Lebanon · Ancient city
Sidon
Neolithic to present (c.4000 BCE–present; Bronze Age city from 3000 BCE) · Canaanite / Phoenician / Persian / Hellenistic / Roman / Crusader / Ottoman
Third great Phoenician city-state, Sidon was famed for glassmaking, purple dye, and as mother-city of Tyre.
🇮🇳 India · Archaeological wonder
Rakhigarhi Indus Mega-City
Pre-Harappan to Mature Harappan to Late (~6500–1900 BCE; urban peak 2600–1900 BCE) · Indus Valley Civilization (Harappan, Hakra–Ghaggar)
Spread across seven mounds over 550 ha, Rakhigarhi surpasses Mohenjo-daro as the largest Harappan settlement, straddling the dried Ghaggar (Saraswati) river.
🇨🇾 Cyprus · Submerged site
Salamis of Cyprus – Sunken Harbour at Ammochostos (Famagusta Bay)
Bronze Age to Late Roman (1180 BCE Enkomi-Salamis – 648 CE Arab sack) · Teucrid Greek / Cypriot / Persian / Hellenistic / Roman
Salamis Cypriot kingdom — 10 ha walled city whose 500 m mole at Pediaeus mouth now 1–2 m under Famagusta Bay.
🇹🇿 Tanzania · Ancient city
Kilwa Kisiwani
Swahili Coast Medieval (9th–19th c; Sultanate peak 1100–1500) · Swahili (Bantu-Arab-Persian) / Shirazi dynasty / Portuguese interlude
Swahili stone-town entrepôt (9th–19th c) controlling Indian Ocean gold trade from Sofala and Great Zimbabwe: Gereza fortress (Portuguese 1505), Great Mosque (oldest sub-Saharan mosque 1131–1770…
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Tell Brak (Nagar) (Al-Hasakah Governorate, Khabur Triangle)
Chalcolithic to Mitanni-Akkadian to Late Bronze · North Mesopotamian (Uruk → Akkadian → Hurrian)
Huge early city ('city without a state' per Oates) occupied 6000 BCE–1300 CE, peaking as Nagar kingdom (2600–2200 BCE) with Mitanni palace (1500 BCE) and Akkadian Naram-Sin palace.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Altıntepe
Urartian Kingdom 8th–6th century BCE (late empire western frontier) · Urartian → Median → Achaemenid
Argishti II's Euphrates citadel with pillared hall, subterranean passage and ivory tombs.
🇸🇩 Sudan · Ancient city
Old Dongola
Medieval Christian–Islamic Nubia (500–1317 CE; peak 800–12th c.) · Makuria (Christian Nubia) / Islamic
Old Dongola on Nile opposite Letti is Makuria Christian Nubia's capital 500–1317 CE, 45 ha walled town with colonnaded citadel, palace of Ioannes (11th c.) 28×18 m with frescoes, five churches…
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Ebla
Early Bronze IVA–B (2400–1600 BCE) · Eblaite Semitic (Northwest Semitic)
Syrian superpower Ebla (c.3500–1600 BCE) with double-walled city (60 ha) and Royal Palace G — where Paolo Matthiae 1975 found the Ebla archive: 17,000 cuneiform tablets in Sumerian and Eblaite…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Arslantepe (Malatya)
Late Chalcolithic to Neo-Hittite (5000 BCE–700 BCE; palace phase 3400–3000 BCE; Neo-Hittite 1200–712 BCE) · Late Chalcolithic / Kura-Araxes / Hittite / Neo-Hittite
Tell city type site for emergence of state and palace economy (3400–3000 BCE): Late Chalcolithic palace (Room A 900) with wall paintings, storerooms with mass-produced bowls, sword hoard (earliest…
🇲🇽 Mexico · Temple complex
El Palmar — Second Temple Plaza (Jimbal–Palmar)
Late Classic 550–850 CE · Maya (Río Bec–Chenes–Central Petén blend)
Secondary plaza 600 m from hieroglyphic stairway: 15 m pyramid with Wak alliance altar, marsh causeway.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Tell Munbaqa
Early–Late Bronze Age (c.2400–1000 BCE) · Syrian Bronze Age (Ekalte)
Euphrates walled city 20 ha (2.5 km double wall, Ekalte Old Babylonian tablets) near Tabqa Lake.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Cahuachi Adobe Pyramids
Early Nazca / Protopalpa 400 BCE–450 CE (peak 100 BCE–300 CE) · Nazca (Paracas → Nazca)
Ceremonial capital of Nazca culture (400 BCE–450 CE) with 40 adobe mounds over 150 ha, including Great Pyramid 28 m high (150 × 100 m base, 3 platforms) and Temple Hill pyramid 20 m.
🇨🇳 China · Archaeological wonder
Erlitou – Xia Capital
Early Bronze Age (~1900–1500 BCE; Xia to early Shang) · Erlitou ( Xia, early Bronze Age Chinese)
300-ha rammed-earth palace enclosure on the Luo River where 11,000 m² Palace No.1 and a bronze foundry document the transition from Longshan Neolithic to bronze kingship.
🇹🇯 Tajikistan · Ancient city
Proto-urban Site of Sarazm
Afanasievo to Sarazm Chalcolithic–Bronze Age · Sarazm culture (Central Asian proto-Bactrian)
Earliest proto-urban centre in Central Asia (4000–2000 BCE) in Zarafshan Valley, Tajikistan's first UNESCO site (2010), 100 ha town with irrigation canals, palace, fortified citadel and aeolian…