🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient village
Pınarbaşı Höyük
Epipalaeolithic to Early Ceramic Neolithic · Central Anatolian Epipalaeolithic → Neolithic
Spring-side rockshelter and village where Epipalaeolithic to PPN aDNA links to Boncuklu and Çatalhöyük.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Tell
Tall Jalul
EBA through Mamluk; Iron II peak · Moabite/Ammonite frontier → Persian Yehud fringe → Byzantine
Madaba Plains giant tell (18 ha) — Iron Ammonite pillared building, 9th c. destruction and Persian reoccupation, largest in Jordan’s Madaba Plains.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Archaeological wonder
Mons Claudianus
Roman Imperial (1st–4th c. CE; peak Trajan–Hadrian 98–138 CE) · Roman (Imperial quarrying)
Mons Claudianus is a remote Eastern Desert granodiorite (quartz-diorite) imperial quarry, 700 m altitude between Nile and Red Sea, source of grey column shafts for Pantheon, Trajan's Forum and Villa…
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Archaeological wonder
Star Carr Mesolithic Settlement
Early Mesolithic (~9000–8500 BCE) · Early Mesolithic British (Maglemosian)
Peat-preserved lake-shore settlement at Lake Flixton where Grahame Clark in 1949–51 uncovered a 12-m timber platform of split birch, 21 red deer antler frontlets drilled for wearing as headdresses,…
🇯🇴 Jordan · Tell
Tall al-‘Umayri (Tell el-Umeiri)
EB through Persian; LB-Iron I transition key · Ammonite frontier; EB Canaanite → LB Canaanite/Ammonite
Ammonite wadi fortress with earliest Levantine four-room house (13th c. BCE) — LB-Iron citadel, casemate-rampart and Persian farm in Madaba Plains.
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Chogha Golan
Pre-Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic (c.11700–3600 BCE) · PPNA → PPNB → Early Chalcolithic (Seimareh Neolithic)
Seimareh 10kyr Neolithic tell 8 m (c.11.7–3.6 ka, 12000 plant samples, pisé) near Seimareh valley.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Patara
Bronze Age to Byzantine (peak Lycian League 168 BCE–43 CE and Hadrianic) · Lycian → Hellenistic → Roman → Byzantine
Lycian federal port with 1st-century parliament hall, buried Nero lighthouse and harbour silted 1 km inland.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient village
Sukur Cultural Landscape
Late Medieval to Modern (16th–20th c. CE; iron 16th c.) · Marghi–Wandala (Chadic)
Sukur is a Mandara Mountains hilltop settlement at 1,045 m, UNESCO World Heritage 1999, with dry-stone terraced fields 1,000–3,045 ft, paved pathways, Hidi (chief) palace with megalithic granite…
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Sang-e Chakhmaq
Neolithic–Transitional Chalcolithic (c.7500–4500 BCE) · Jeitun-related → Cheshmeh Ali (Northeast Iran Neolithic)
Shahroud two-mound Neolithic tell (c.7500–4500 BCE, West PPN timber, East painted, 1400 m) at Shahrud.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Van Fortress and Tushpa — Capital of Urartu
Urartian Kingdom (9th–6th century BCE; later Urartian–Median–Achaemenid–Ottoman) · Urartian (Biainili) → Median → Achaemenid → Ottoman
Urartu's 100 m limestone citadel over Lake Van with royal rock-tombs and Xerxes trilingual.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Aşıklı Höyük
Aceramic Neolithic (PPNB equivalent) · Central Anatolian Neolithic
Pre-Pottery Neolithic tell (c.8200–7400 BCE) on the Melendiz in Cappadocia, earliest village with brain surgery (trepanation) and animal pen dung layers showing caprine management toward…
🇱🇾 Libya · Rock art
Haua Fteah Cave
Middle Stone Age to Neolithic (200,000–6,000 BP) · Homo sapiens MS A/MSA/LSA; Oranian Dabban Capsian
Haua Fteah is a 50-m-wide by 20-m-high karst cave at foot of Jebel Akhdar escarpment, Cyrenaica's deep 14-m stratified sequence 200,000–10,000 BP, spanning Middle Stone Age Upper Palaeolithic…
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Archaeological wonder
Oakbank Crannog, Loch Tay
Iron Age (~800 BCE – 100 CE; Oakbank 460 BCE – 200 BCE) · Atlantic Scottish Iron Age (Caledonian)
One of 18 Iron Age timber islets in Loch Tay, Oakbank comprises a 30-m oak pile ring with horizontal alder floors still preserved 2 m deep in cold waterlogged peat.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient village
Tepecik-Çiftlik Höyük
Aceramic Neolithic to Late Neolithic–Early Chalcolithic · Central Anatolian (Aşıklı → Çatalhöyük related)
Major Aceramic to Chalcolithic tell (c.7500–5500 BCE) on Çiftlik Plain at Göllü Dağ obsidian source — Cappadocian Neolith obsidian factory.
🇷🇺 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.
🇨🇾 Cyprus · Submerged site
Pyla-Koutsopetria – Roman Anchorage off Cyprus Southeast Coast
Hellenistic to Early Byzantine (200 BCE – 650 CE) · Hellenistic Greek / Roman / Early Byzantine
Roman coastal roadstead on Cyprus — 120 m mole rubble and ballast piles 1–3 m off Pyla beach.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Tilmen Höyük (Tilmen Hoyuk)
EBA through Iron Age; MBA peak · Yamhad (Aleppo) vassal; Syro-Hittite → Assyrian
MBA palace city (Zalwar?) with basalt lion gate, cuneiform archive and planned lower town — Yamhad-period vassal capital in Islahiye corridor.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Archaeological wonder
Syene Granite Quarries
Old Kingdom to Roman (2700 BCE–500 CE; peak 1500–30 BCE) · Ancient Egyptian / Roman
Syene (Aswan) granite quarries are Old–Ptolemaic hardstone source producing 100-m-long unfinished obelisk of Hatshepsut (1,200 t) abandoned in bedrock crack, plus sarcophagi, colossi and pavements…
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Tepe Guran
Aceramic–Early Ceramic Neolithic (7100–5500 BCE) · Zagros Neolithic (Guran)
Aceramic–Early Ceramic Neolithic (7100–5500 BCE) Zagros Neolithic (Guran) tell at Lorestan Province, Hulailan Plain, Zagros – campsite-to-village neolithic sequence in zagros (dims Mound 8 m, Guran PHASES a–j).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Kovuklukaya Höyük
Chalcolithic–Late Bronze (4500–1200 BCE) · North-Central Anatolian
Chalcolithic–Late Bronze (4500–1200 BCE) North-Central Anatolian tell at Sinop Province, Black Sea – fortified citadel controlling black sea–central anatolia route (dims Mound 20 m high, fortified plateau 1 ha).
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Taban (Ṭābetu)
Old Babylonian–Mittani (1900–1350 BCE) – Tabetu · Hurrian–Mittani
Old Babylonian–Mittani (1900–1350 BCE) – Tabetu Hurrian–Mittani tell at Al-Hasakah Governorate, Lower Khabur – city-state tabetu on khabur with cuneiform archive (dims 23 ha city with southern palace archive mound).
🇯🇵 Japan · Ancient village
Ofune Jomon Site
Early–Middle Jomon 3500–2000 BCE · Jomon Early–Middle Hokkaido maritime
Early–Middle Jomon coastal settlement (3500–2000 BCE) on Ofune River terrace facing Uchiura Bay, Hokkaido, renowned for 100+ deep pit graves, stone pile graves, and massive whale-bone midden (sperm…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Kazane Höyük
Early Bronze–Iron (2600–600 BCE) · Hurrian – Aramaean (Harran)
Early Bronze–Iron (2600–600 BCE) Hurrian – Aramaean (Harran) tell at Şanlıurfa Province, Harran Plain – 22-m tell controlling harran plain, cargo from carchemish (dims 22 m high, 1 km² lower town, EB palace).
🇿🇦 South Africa · Earthwork
Bokoni Stone-Walled Terraces
Late Iron Age (1500–1820 CE; peak 1700–1820) · Eastern Sotho (Bokoni)
Bokoni (Koni) terraces in Mpumalanga escarpment are 150 ha dry-stone agricultural terraces 16th–19th c., built by Eastern Sotho Bokoni people on hillslopes with road causeways and stock kraal…