🇪🇬 Egypt · Archaeological wonder
Abu Mena
Late Roman to Early Byzantine 4th–7th c. CE, peak 5th–6th c. · Coptic Christian / Byzantine Egyptian
Desert pilgrimage city of Saint Menas, 4th–7th c., now endangered by water table rise.
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🇬🇹 Guatemala · Ancient city
Wakna (Güiro)
Middle to Late Preclassic Mirador 600 BCE–150 CE · Maya (Mirador Basin)
Formerly Güiro, renamed Wakna: massive Triadic Acropolis (25 m pyramid on 70 m platform) with three temples and deep aguada (reservoir) 80 m diameter excavated into bedrock.
🇹🇳 Tunisia · Archaeological wonder
Chemtou (Simitthus)
Numidian to Byzantine (quarry 2nd c BCE–6th c CE) · Numidian / Roman / Byzantine
Imperial marble quarry source of giallo antico with 80 m high quarry face, loading ramps and bridge over Medjerda.
🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan · Ancient city
Ak-Beshim Chu Valley City
Sogdian 5th c → Western Turk 581–659 → Tang 659–1141 · Sogdian–Western Turk → Tang Chinese — Chuy Valley Silk Road
Ak-Beshim Chu Valley City — ancient Suyab/Suye (5th–12th c CE) Western Turk capital on Chu River at Ak-Beshim, 8 km SW Tokmok, excavated 1938–58 by Bernshtam and 2010s Kyrgyz-German.
🇸🇾 Syria · Archaeological wonder
Citadel of Aleppo
3rd millennium BCE to present (Yamhad Bronze Age peak; current fortress 12th–13th c CE) · Amorite (Yamhad) / Hittite / Neo-Hittite / Hellenistic / Ayyubid / Mamluk / Ottoman
One of the oldest continuously fortified mounds in the world, Aleppo citadel occupies a 45 m-high tell (Yamhad kingdom capital c.1800 BCE).
🇪🇬 Egypt · Submerged site
Antirhodos Island – Cleopatra's Sunken Palace Island
Ptolemaic to Late Antique (c. 300 BCE – 365 CE submerged) · Ptolemaic Greek / Roman
Cleopatra's palace island in Alexandria Eastern Harbour — Ptolemaic royal isle now 6 m down with sphinx and granite palaces.
🇧🇷 Brazil · Earthwork
Marajoara Mounds (Teso dos Bichos)
Marajoara Phase (Polychrome Tradition) · Marajoara (Arauan-derived Amazonian Polychrome)
Marajoara chiefdom mounds (800–1400 CE)—40-m tesos and funerary urn fields on Amazon's delta island.
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan · Ancient city
Historic Centre of Bukhara
Samanid to Shaybanid 9th–16th c (settled from 1st c CE) · Samanid / Qarakhanid / Shaybanid Islamic (Persian)
2000-year-old Silk Road oasis city preserved as intact medieval Islamic townscape with 140+ monuments.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Hydraulic works
Nimrud Dam
Neo-Assyrian Empire 879-612 BCE · Assyrian Neo-Assyrian imperial engineers
879 BCE Assyrian Tigris weir dam (200 m) at Nimrud with 5 gated sluices feeding Sennacherib's canal cascade to Nineveh.
🇹🇭 Thailand · Ancient city
Khao Sam Kaeo
Early Maritime Silk Road 500 BCE–300 CE (Iron Age to early Funan precursor) · Peninsular Thai–Indianized Austroasiatic → Tamil–Han contact (Mala–Yon)
Early Maritime Silk Road port-city and high-tin bronze–iron workshop (c.500 BCE–300 CE) at the Isthmus of Kra near Chumphon, Peninsular Thailand — 55 ha hillock city with four enclosures, excavated…
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Qatna Buried Royal Palace East Wing Hydraulic
Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Qatna Buried Royal Palace East Wing Hydraulic in Homs, Qatna, Syria is a Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) ancient city attributed to Bronze Age.
🇹🇯 Tajikistan · Temple complex
Takhti-Sangin (Oxus Temple)
Greco-Bactrian 3rd–2nd c BCE → Kushan 1st–4th c CE · Greco-Bactrian → Kushan Bactria (Amu Darya Oxus cult)
Takhti-Sangin — Hellenistic–Kushan temple city (3rd c BCE–4th c CE) at Vakhsh–Panj confluence forming Amu Darya (Oxus), excavated 1976–91 Pichikyan and Litvinsky (Academy Tadjik).
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan · Ancient city
Kampir Tepe
Hellenistic 330–145 BCE → Yuezhi–Kushan 145 BCE–350 CE → Sasanians 350–500 CE · Greco-Bactrian → Kushan–Sogdian (Oxus trade)
Oxus port fortress (330 BCE–500 CE) at Kampir hill 30 km west Termez — Hellenistic gate, Kushan quay and Alexander port contender.
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Godin Tepe
Late Chalcolithic to Iron Age II (c.5000–500 BCE; peak Uruk interlude and Median 750–550) · Ubaid-derived Zagros → Uruk colonial (Susa) → Kura-Araxes (Transcaucasian) → Early Transcaucasian → Iron Age Median
Zagros road-stop tell of Uruk traders, Kura-Araxes migrants, Median hall and earliest chemically attested wine.
🇺🇦 Ukraine · Submerged site
Chersonesus Taurica – Submerged Quays (Chersonesos)
Classical to Medieval (422 BCE – 14th c. CE) · Doric Greek / Bosporan / Roman / Byzantine / Kievan Rus' orbit
422 BCE Doric Black Sea polis whose harbour quarter now lies under Quarantine Bay.
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan · Ancient city
Togolok-21 Temple-Fortress
Gonur / Togolok phase BMAC 2300–1700 BCE · Bactria–Margiana (Oxus) civilization
BMAC (Bactria–Margiana) monumental temple-fortress (c.2300–1700 BCE) on Murghab alluvium, satellite of Gonur Tepe, built of mud-brick with central fortified court 30×40 m, fire temple, part of Viktor…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Babylon
Old Babylonian to Neo-Babylonian and Hellenistic (1894 BCE–141 BCE; monumental peak Nebuchadnezzar II 604–562 BCE) · Babylonian / Assyrian / Persian / Hellenistic
Capital of Babylonian empire (1894 BCE–539 BCE) on Euphrates, Babylon at its greatest under Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar II (604–562 BCE): Processional Way, Ishtar Gate (glazed brick dragons and…
🇮🇶 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).
🇰🇭 Cambodia · Ancient city
Angkor Thom and the Bayon
Khmer Empire 1181–1243 CE (Bayon peak Jayavarman VII) · Khmer Mahayana Buddhist (with Shaiva syncretism)
Khmer capital city (late 12th century by Jayavarman VII) covering 9 km² walled square with Bayon state temple – 54 towers with 216 enigmatic smiling Avalokiteshvara faces blending Mahayana compassion…
🇦🇫 Afghanistan · Ancient city
Ai Khanoum
Hellenistic Seleucid–Greco-Bactrian 300–145 BCE · Seleucid / Greco-Bactrian (Greek in Central Asia)
Hellenistic polis (c.300–145 BCE) at Oxus confluence, founded by Seleucus I as Alexandria on Oxus, excavated 1964–1979 by French DAFA.
🇺🇦 Ukraine · Submerged site
Chersonesos — Quarantine Bay Central Submerged Mole
Classical to Byzantine (5th c. BCE – 1400 CE) · Herakleian Greek / Bosporan / Byzantine
Central mole of Chersonesos Quarantine Bay — 65 m ashlar harbour mole at 2–5 m dividing naval/mercantile basins.
🇨🇿 Czech Republic · Ancient city
Pohansko Great Moravian Centre (Břeclav)
Early Middle Ages (c.650–920 CE, Great Moravian peak 830–900) · Great Moravia (Mojmirid dynasty)
Pohansko Great Moravian Centre (Břeclav) in South Moravia, Břeclav district, Pohansko by Dyje river, Czech Republic is a Early Middle Ages (c.650–920 CE, Great Moravian peak 830–900) Great Moravia…
🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan · Ancient city
Suyab (Ak-Beshim)
Western Turkic → Tang protectorate → Karluks/Qarakhanid 6–12 c. CE · Sogdian → Turkic Khaganate → Karluks (Silk Road Buddhist-Christian-Manichaean)
Sogdian–Turkic Silk Road capital (c.6–12 c. CE) at Ak-Beshim in the Chu Valley — 35 ha walled shahristan (650×560 m) with Buddhist temple complex (two temples 50×30 m with clay Buddhas), Nestorian…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Notion (Notium) — Temple of Apollo at Claros Outpost
Classical to Late Antiquity (500 BCE – 600 CE) · Aeolian Greek (Kolophonian) and Roman
Kolophon harbour city with Doric Apollo temple facing mother city.