🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Atzompa — Oaxaca
Classic Xoo 650–900 CE · Zapotec (Xoo/Mahuitz phase)
Monte Albán northern barrio: 45 m ballcourt largest in Oaxaca and House of the Altars on 250 m plaza.
🇲🇦 Morocco · Ancient city
Gilda / Rirha
Mauretanian to Islamic (5th c. BCE–8th c. CE; Roman peak 1st–4th c. CE) · Mauretanian / Roman
Rirha (ancient Gilda) on the Sebou River is a Mauretanian city turned Roman colonia, 5th c. BCE–8th c. CE, excavated by Callegarin 2005–.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Acharneh
Early Bronze Age to Hellenistic (c.3000–300 BCE) · Syrian EBA → Aramaean → Neo-Hittite fringe
Ghāb Orontes fortress tell 12 ha (EB glacis, Iron Age Aramaean town Tunip/Qarqar) in Ghāb swamp.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Ancient city
Jerash (Gerasa)
Hellenistic to Early Islamic (c.332 BCE–749 CE, peak 1st–3rd c CE) · Graeco-Roman / Nabataean / Byzantine / Umayyad
One of the best-preserved Greco-Roman cities in the Near East, Gerasa was a Decapolis city with colonnaded cardo, two tetrapylons, Hadrian's Arch (129 CE), Oval Plaza, Temple of Artemis and Temple of…
🇰🇭 Cambodia · Temple complex
Sambor Prei Kuk Archaeological Site
Chenla pre-Angkor 600–800 CE; occupation to 15th c. · Shaiva Hindu and Mahayana
Chenla capital Isanapura (7th c., King Isanavarman I c.616–635) on Stung Sen floodplain, earliest Buddhist-Hindu temple-city before Angkor: 291 temples in three walled enclosures (Prasat Sambor, Yeay…
🇨🇭 Switzerland · Ancient city
Augusta Raurica Roman Colony
Roman (44 BCE–400 CE) · Roman (Colonia Augusta Rauracorum)
Best-preserved Roman colonial city on the Rhine, founded 44 BCE and monumentalized under Augustus.
🇱🇧 Lebanon · Ancient city
Tyre
Bronze Age to Ottoman (c.2750 BCE–present; Phoenician peak 1100–332 BCE) · Phoenician / Persian / Hellenistic / Roman / Byzantine / Crusader
Phoenician island-city and legendary birthplace of Europa and Dido, Tyre dominated Mediterranean purple-dye trade.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Megiddo
Chalcolithic to Iron Age / Persian · Canaanite → Egyptian → Israelite
Strategic tell commanding Via Maris (Egypt-Mesopotamia road) through Jezreel, occupied 7000 BCE–586 BCE with 26 strata, Thutmosis III 1457 BCE battle (first battle in recorded history), Canaanite…
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Lachish
Early Bronze to Babylonian destruction 587 BCE · Canaanite → Israelite/Judahite
Major Canaanite city-state and Judahite fortress second only to Jerusalem (Joshua, Hezekiah, Sennacherib's 701 BCE reliefs at British Museum).
🇷🇺 Russia · Submerged site
Kepoi – Submerged Aphrodite Colony
Archaic to Medieval (c.580 BCE – 10th c.) · Milesian Greek / Bosporan / Sarmatian
590 BCE neighbour to Phanagoria whose harbour quarter is now under Taman Bay.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Ashkelon
Early Bronze to Crusader 1191 CE · Canaanite → Philistine → Phoenician → Roman
Five-period tells (Canaanite vaulted mudbrick gate — oldest arch in the world c.1850 BCE, 4 m high; Philistine emporium of titans with 15,000 sq m market; Phoenician Tyrian-purple, Greek, Roman,…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Lagash
Jemdet Nasr to Ur III / Old Babylonian · Sumerian
Sumerian city-state Lagash (Tell al-Hiba proper) and its religious capital Girsu (Tello, 25 km SE) — often conflated as Lagash-Girsu.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
El Mirador — South Group Second Site
Late Preclassic Mirador 300 BCE–150 CE · Maya (Preclassic Mirador Basin)
Southern satellite of Preclassic supersite: 18 m triadic pyramid and 1.8 m Ajaw stucco mask cache with causeway.
🇲🇦 Morocco · Ancient city
Volubilis
Mauretanian to Early Islamic (3rd c BCE Berber settlement; Roman 25 BCE–285 CE; Idrisid 788 CE) · Mauretanian / Roman / Berber / Early Islamic (Idrisid)
Roman Mauretania Tingitana capital with 42 ha walled city, Volubilis preserves 2nd–3rd c town: Decumanus Maximus 400 m, Forum, Capitol, Basilica, Arch of Caracalla (217 CE erected for Caracalla and…
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Susa
Neolithic to Medieval (c.4200 BCE–1218 CE; Elamite capital c.2700–646 BCE; Achaemenid palace 522–331 BCE) · Elamite / Persian Achaemenid / Seleucid / Parthian / Sassanian
Elamite capital then Achaemenid administrative capital (Darius I, 522 BCE), Susa preserves mound sequence from 4200 BCE: Apadana of Darius (36 limestone columns, glazed brick friezes of Immortals and…
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia · Archaeological wonder
Dadan – Kingdom of Lihyan at AlUla
Iron Age to Classical (800 BCE – 100 CE) · Dedanite / Lihyanite (North Arabian)
Twin tells of Umm Daraj and Al-Khuraiba flanking the AlUla oasis, whose cliffs hide the rock-cut Lion Tombs – two unfinished effigies of couchant lions only 4 m long, unique in Arabia.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Qatna
Early Bronze to Late Bronze (Amorite Hurrian) · Amorite then Hurrian-Mitanni Egyptian orbit
Mighty Middle Bronze (c.2800–1340 BCE) kingdom city of Qatna controlling eastern Homs basin, with 1 km-square royal palace (largest Bronze Age palace in Syria, 10,000 m²) and intact royal hypogeum…
🇲🇦 Morocco · Ancient city
Tamuda (Tetouan)
Mauretanian to Late Roman (2nd c BCE–5th c CE; peak 1st–3rd c CE) · Mauri / Phoenician / Roman
Moorish–Roman Tamuda at Tetouan with Punic fort and garum factories destroyed AD 40.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Ancient city
Yaxnohcah
Middle Preclassic to Late Classic 1000 BCE–950 CE, Mirador Basin fluorescence · Maya (Mirador Basin Preclassic)
Huge Preclassic center on basin SE ridge 15 km N of Calakmul: massive E-Group (355 m platform) aligning equinox sunrise, Triadic Structure A 30 m pyramid, and Late Classic intrusive occupation after…
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Tell Leilan (Shubat-Enlil)
Early Bronze to Old Assyrian · Akkadian → Amorite Assyrian
Akkadian provincial capital turned Assyrian royal city Shubat-Enlil (Shamshi-Adad I c.1813–1791 BCE), with 90 ha walled city, Akkadian palace on Acropolis, and the Weiss 4.2ka climate event…
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Kiuic
Late Classic Puuc 600–900 CE peak (with Middle Preclassic origins) · Maya (Puuc)
Major Puuc city in protected 1,800 ha reserve: Palace 38 m long with Puuc mosaic colonnade, Yaxché Group 60 m-tall conical karst hill with EAC twin concentrations, and chultunes.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Uruk (Warka)
Neolithic to Sassanian (c.5000 BCE–632 CE; Uruk period city 4000–3100 BCE) · Sumerian / Babylonian / Persian
Type site for Uruk period and first true city (c.4000–3100 BCE), Uruk at peak 2900 BCE housed 50,000–80,000 inside 9.5 km city wall built by Gilgamesh (per Epic).
🇨🇳 China · Ancient city
Sanxingdui Archaeological Site
Shu Culture 1200–1000 BCE (Sanxingdui period III) · Shu (Sichuan Basin, non-Han?)
Shu Kingdom sacrificial pits (1200–1000 BCE) revealed 1929 and sensationally 1986 with two pits of bronzes unlike Anyang Shang: 2.6 m bronze standing figure, mask with 132 cm protruding eyes, and…
EG · Submerged site
Berenike Troglodytica – Ptolemaic Red Sea Port & Lagoon Harbour
Ptolemaic to Late Roman (275 BCE – 6th c. CE) · Ptolemaic Greek / Roman Egyptian / Indian Ocean
Ptolemaic elephant port turned Indo-Roman pepper emporium — lagoon harbour behind coral reef now silted 1 m on Foul Bay.