🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Banawali — Harappan Barracks Site Haryana
Pre-Harappan to Late Harappan (2800–1500 BCE) · Harappan
Banawali excavated by Bisht 1973–, with barracks and seal of unicorn.
🇩🇿 Algeria · Fortress
Lambaesis Legionary Camp (Tazoult)
Roman (81 CE – 5th c CE; legionary base 123–238 CE) · Roman (Legio III Augusta)
Africa's largest legionary fortress, Lambaesis housed 6,000 men of III Augusta with principia, baths, amphitheatre, aqueduct and arch of Commodus. Headquarters shrine and numerus i...
🇮🇹 Italy · Buried city
Pompeii
Roman (foundation Oscan 6th c BCE, Roman from 80 BCE) · Roman
Roman city of 12,000 buried by Vesuvius eruption 24 August 79 CE under 4–6 m pumice and ash, preserving streets, villas, Forum, amphitheatre, baths and plaster casts of victims.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Fortified city
Katsina City Walls – 14 km Runded Earthwork
Hausa classical (c. 1100–1807 CE; Ganuwa built 13th–14th c) · Hausa (Katsina scholarly centre)
Seven-gate 14 km mud rampart enclosing 405 ha Hausa scholarly city of Gobarau minaret (14th c mudbrick tower 15 m, oldest multi-storey mud in West Africa), manuscript libraries and...
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Xoïs (Sakha) – Delta Capital of the Xoite Dynasty
Old Kingdom / Second Intermediate · Egyptian
Lost capital of Xoite 14th Dynasty (76 kings) contesting Hyksos Avaris. Stepped temple of Amun and 8 m Hyksos walls detected by magnetometry; Herodotus lists Delta metropolis.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Ancient city
Petra
Nabataean to Roman (312 BCE–363 CE earthquake) · Nabataean / Arab
Nabataean caravan city (312 BCE–106 CE) carved into sandstone cliffs: Al-Khazneh Treasury, Theatre, Monastery Ad-Deir, Royal Tombs, and hydraulic system capturing desert flash floods.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Heracleopolis Magna (Ihnasya el-Medina)
Old to Middle Kingdom / Late Period · Egyptian
Capital of Heracleopolitan dynasty (Dyn 9–10, 2160–2055 BCE) whose 'Instruction for Merikare' defines First Intermediate Period.
🇯🇲 Jamaica · Submerged site
Port Royal
Early Modern (1518–1692) · English colonial / pirate
Infamous pirate capital of Caribbean ('Wickedest City in the World'), 2/3 slid into harbour by liquefaction in 1692 earthquake + tsunami, preserving 17th c storehouses under sediment - 'Pompeii of…
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Gobir (Al Kalawa) – Desert Capital Remains
Hausa–Gobir kingdom (c. 1450–1808 reform jihad; abandonment 1808) · Hausa-Gobir (king Bawa Jangwarzo, Yunfa vs Usman dan Fodio)
Final capital of animist Gobir kingdom at Al Kalawa, with 4.5 km desert mud walls and palace tell where Sultan Yunfa hosted then fought Usman dan Fodio before 1808 Sokoto jihad cap...
🇩🇿 Algeria · Ancient city
Madauros (M'Daourouch) – University City of Apuleius
Numidian / Roman · Romano-Berber
High-plateau Roman university town famed as birthplace of Apuleius (Golden Ass) and Augustine's school.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Birnin Kebbi (Argungu) – Kebbi River Fort Town
Kebbi Kingdom (1515 Kebbi revolt from Songhai – 1808 Fulani) · Zarma–Hausa–Songhai (Kanta Kotal founder)
Rival capital to Songhai after Kebbi's 1515 revolt, Birnin Kebbi on Sokoto River with 5.8 km walls and citadel where Kanta's cavalry defeated Songhai at Surame aftermath; annual Ar...
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Kisurra
ED to Isin-Larsa (c.3000–1750 BCE) · Sumerian → Akkadian → Ur III → Isin-Larsa
Kisurra (Abu Hatab) is a Sumerian city-state between Isin and Larsa, with ED palace and Ur III archive. German excavations (1900, 1990s) revealed city wall (2 k...
🇺🇦 Ukraine · Submerged site
Olbia Pontica — Southern Lower Town Harbour (Bug Liman South)
Archaic to Roman (647 BCE – 300 CE) · Milesian Greek / Scythian
Southern Black Sea harbour of Olbia Pontica below acropolis — 140 m curved mole at –1.8 m.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Submerged site
Quseir al-Qadim — Mangrove Harbour Extension at Marsa Nakari West (Leukos Limen West) — v2
Roman to Mamluk (25 BCE – 1450 CE) · Roman / Islamic (Ayyubid-Mamluk)
Western mangrove bay of Quseir al-Qadim at Marsa Nakari west — gypsum quay at –1.2 m and 14th c. Islamic warehouses.
🇨🇱 Chile · Ancient village
Monte Verde
Late Pleistocene 14,800–13,000 BP (MV-II 14,800 BP; MV-I earlier claim 33,000 BP contested) · Late Paleoindian (pre-Clovis; Monte Verde culture, Austral–Magellanic hunter-gatherers)
Earliest securely dated settlement in Americas (14,800–14,500 BP) – late Pleistocene campsite on paleo-channel terrace in southern Chile with preserved tent floors (3 structures 30 m² total,…
🇱🇻 Latvia · Ancient city
Turaida Castle and Livonian Settlement
Middle Ages (1214–16th c. with Iron Age hillfort substratum 5th–12th c.) · Livonian Brothers of Sword / Archbishop of Riga, Livs
Turaida Castle and Livonian Settlement in Vidzeme, Sigulda Municipality, Turaida (formerly Treiden), Latvia is a Middle Ages (1214–16th c.
🇩🇰 Denmark · Ancient city
Sorte Muld
Roman Iron Age → Vendel–Viking 200–1100 (Bornholm central place) · Bornholm Iron Age (Burgundians? Bornholm island central place, guldgubbar sanctuary)
Sorte Muld (Black Soil) — Iron Age central-place and sanctuary (Late Roman 200–400 → Viking Age 400–1100, peak Vendel 600–800) on Bornholm plateau 2 km south Svaneke, eastern Bornholm's richest site.
🇲🇱 Mali · Ancient city
Essouk-Tadmekka Islamic Quarter House 7
Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Essouk-Tadmekka Islamic Quarter House 7 in Gao, Essouk, Mali is a Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) ancient city attributed to Bronze Age.
🇲🇱 Mali · Ancient city
Essouk (Tadmekka)
Medieval trans-Saharan (8th–15th c; peak 11th–14th c) · Sanhaja Berber / Tuareg (Kel Essouk) / Songhai
Arid 12 ha Berber warehouse town with 8th-c mosque (among earliest in West Africa) and 750,000 glass beads on salt route.
🇺🇦 Ukraine · Ancient city
Varvarovka
Late Chalcolithic Trypillia C1 (3800–3500 BCE) Southern Bug · Cucuteni-Trypillia C1 (Varvarovka variant, Usatovo contact)
Varvarovka (Varvarovca) — cluster of Cucuteni-Trypillia C1 settlements Varvarovka VIII and XV (c.3800–3500 BCE, 5–10 ha each) on Southern Bug right bank at Varvarovka village, Mykolaiv NW suburb, Bug…
🇪🇹 Ethiopia · Ancient city
Fasil Ghebbi — Royal Enclosure of Gondar
Gondarine (1632–1864 CE) · Ethiopian Solomonic / Gondarine
Fasil Ghebbi is the 70,000 m² Royal Enclosure of Gondar, Ethiopia's 17th–18th c imperial capital (1632–1864).
🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Jhusi (Pratishthana)
Neolithic I (7000–4000) → Chalcolithic II (2500–1200) → NBPW III (600 BCE–300 CE) → Gupta IV · Vindhyan–Gangetic Neolithic → Gangetic Chalcolithic → Kuru-Panchala NBPW
Massive Neolithic–Early Historic mound (c.7000 BCE–1200 CE) on the Ganga's east bank opposite Prayagraj Sangam — 4 ha mound with 16 m cultural deposit excavated 1995–2003 by Allahabad University (G.R.
🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Kaundinyapura Wardha Settlement
Early Historic 3rd c BCE–4th c CE Early Historic Deccan · Vidarbha Early Historic — Satavahana trading city (Kundina literary)
Kaundinyapura Wardha Settlement — Early Historic trading city (3rd c BCE–4th c CE) on Wardha River at Kaundinyapura, identified with Mahabharata Kundina (Vidarbha capital of Bhishmaka, Rukmini…
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Chinkultic (Lagunas de Montebello) Maya City
Early to Late Classic Maya (300–1200 CE) · Maya (Tojolabal – Comitán sphere)
Highland Maya city (300–1200 CE) perched above Cenote Agua Azul at Montebello Lakes, Comitán plateau: 127 mounds grouped in 4 architectural clusters (Groups A–D) over 50 ha, including 25-m-high…