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The catalogue
346 places to sift through. Narrow by kind, country, period or how firmly each one is established — contested and pseudoarchaeological claims are labelled here, never hidden.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Submerged site
Period Late Holocene · Regional culture Submerged-Variant
Fortress Citadel Submerged 71 — Turkey Region 11 in Turkey Region 11, Turkey is a Neolithic submerged-city with stratified deposits and regional significance. Excavations reveal architectural phasing.
🇵🇭 Philippines · Hydraulic works
Ifugao post-Spanish intensive (Acabado) · Ifugao (Tuwali) terrace engineers
Northernmost Ifugao terrace hydraulic: 120 terraces over 280 m vertical fed by 2.4 km mountain contour canal.
🇲🇦 Morocco · Hydraulic works
Early Islamic to present (1,300-yr continuity) · Sijilmassa Hezran + Filali oasis communities
Tafilalet foggara line: 45 khettaras (0.8-6 km, 120-410 shafts) feeding Sijilmassa palm oasis since 8th c.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Hydraulic works
Iron Age (Urartian Kingdom) · Urartian
Urartian masterpiece (1,720 m, 38°30′37″N 43°21′58″E 38.5103,43.3661; also 38°29′39″N 43°22′48″E Van city) 56 km (35 mi) gravity canal plus aqueducts built by King Menua (r.
🇮🇷 Iran · Hydraulic works
Achaemenid to present (2,500 years continuous) · Persian qanat engineers (Achaemenid, Sassanian, Safavid)
71-km Zarch qanat—longest gravity aquifer tunnel on Earth (500 BCE–Safavid).
🇨🇱 Chile · Hydraulic works
Formative to Modern (Alto Ramírez to Colonial) · Tarapacá / Pica-Tarapacá / Hispanic oasis
Pica (1,350 m, 20°29′21″S 69°19′46″W) is the only living oasis of the Atacama with active filtration galleries (socavones) tapping the Pica Aquifer; study by Lictevout et al.
🇪🇸 Spain · Rock art
Upper Palaeolithic (Solutrean–Magdalenian) · Solutrean–Magdalenian hunter-gatherers of western Iberia
443 Palaeolithic figures on Águeda schist—UNESCO trans-frontier extension of Côa Valley (20–10k BCE).
🇨🇳 China · Ancient city
Late Longshan Taosi phase 2300–1900 BCE → Erlitou transition · Longshan (Taosi culture) → Early Xia? (Yao/Shun legend)
Late Longshan (Taosi phase) walled regional capital (c.2300–1900 BCE) at Tao Temple basin near Linfen, Shanxi — 280 ha enclosure (largest Longshan city in Yellow River basin) with rammed-earth outer…
🇲🇳 Mongolia · Tumulus
Late Iron Age, Xiongnu Empire · Xiongnu (Hunnu) northern imperial elite
Xiongnu elite shaft tombs in Khentii pine forest—Han silk 'Chanyu servant' inscription and lapis 4,000 km trade chain.
🇨🇳 China · Hydraulic works
Imperial Chinese (Ming-Qing) on Han antecedent · Turpan Uyghur / Han frontier
Eastern extension (30 m asl, 42°57′04″N 89°11′22″E Turpan municipal 42.9512,89.1895; Flaming Mountains 100 km E-W 42.98,89.20 500-850 m) of Turpan-Hami Silk Road karez water system UNESCO 1442 Silk…
🇦🇲 Armenia · Rock art
Late Chalcolithic (Areni phase, 4300–3400 BCE) · Areni / Late Chalcolithic South Caucasus (related to Maykop-Leyla Tepe)
Armenian Chalcolithic wine-cave with 3500 BCE shoe, winery and ibex petroglyphs.
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia · Rock art
Holocene: Neolithic to Bronze Age to Thamudic · Successive Arabian Holocene cultures (hunter-herder to caravaneer)
10,000-year petroglyph palimpsest at Jebel Umm Sinman—UNESCO rock art on a vanished lake shore.
🇱🇾 Libya · Ancient city
Iron Age Saharan to Islamic (900 BCE–600 CE) · Garamantian (Saharan Berber)
6-ha foggara-irrigated Garamantian capital with 500 qanat and 250 tombs in Fezzan heartland.
🇮🇹 Italy · Archaeological wonder
Multi-period (4000 BCE–1000 CE) · Multi-period
Monte d'Accoddi Platform II Sardinia in Sardinia, Sassari, Italy is a Multi-period (4000 BCE–1000 CE) archaeological wonder attributed to Multi-period.
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia · Rock art
Early Holocene humid to Bronze/Thamudic arid · Neolithic hunter-herders to Thamudic caravaneers
UNESCO escarpment with 300 panels—lions on leashed dogs and savanna fauna from Arabia's humid phase.
🇹🇿 Tanzania · Ancient village
Middle Stone Age to Later Stone Age to Pastoral Neolithic · MSA → LSA foragers → Pastoral Neolithic
130-ka Eyasi rockshelter Mumba with 18 burials and Still Bay to LSA microlith transition.
🇲🇦 Morocco · Ancient city
Phoenician to Islamic (6th c BCE–8th c CE; peak 1st–3rd c CE) · Phoenician / Mauri / Roman
River limes fort Thamusida with Praetorium frescoes and cohors II Syrorum camp.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Archaeological wonder
Early Dynastic to Late Period (2950–650 BCE; decorated peak Middle Kingdom) · Ancient Egyptian / Coptic
Hare nome necropolis with Djehutihotep colossus sledge 172 men and earliest Book of Two Ways coffins.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Temple complex
Late Ptolemaic to Roman (54 BCE–117 CE; zodiac 50 BCE) · Ptolemaic Egyptian / Roman
Best-preserved Hathor temple with 24 sistrum columns, crypt 'Dendera light' reliefs and zodiac ceiling (54 BCE).
🇹🇳 Tunisia · Ancient city
Numidian to Late Roman (6th c BCE–5th c CE; villas 2nd–4th c) · Numidian / Carthaginian / Roman
Unique Numidian–Roman town with two-storey subterranean villas and intact hunt mosaics preserved by burial.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Archaeological wonder
Old to Middle Kingdom (2350–1750 BCE; painted peak Twelfth Dynasty) · Ancient Egyptian
39 nomarch cliff tombs 2100–1750 BCE with Asiatic caravan 37 and wrestling 219 pairs proto-Doric.
🇩🇿 Algeria · Ancient city
Roman to Byzantine (75-647 CE; peak 2nd-4th c CE) · Roman / Byzantine
Legionary Theveste with arch.
🇺🇸 United States · Archaeological wonder
Ancestral Pueblo to historic 1000 CE–present (Hlauuma founded c.1000–1450 CE) · Taos Pueblo (Tiwa language, Northern Tiwa; ancestors Ancestral Puebloans)
Living Native American community and UNESCO World Heritage Site (1992) inhabited continuously for >1,000 years: two multi-storey adobe complexes Hlauuma (north house) and Hlaukwima (south house) up…
🇱🇹 Lithuania · Ancient city
Mesolithic to Medieval (c.7000 BCE–1390 CE) · Baltic (Lithuanian)
UNESCO World Heritage ensemble in the Neris valley 35 km NW of Vilnius, with five hillforts (Aukuro, Mindaugo, Lizdeikos, Pilies and Kriveikiškis), unfortified settlements, burial fields and medieval…
