🇪🇬 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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🇲🇳 Mongolia · Archaeological wonder
Noin-Ula Kurgans
Xiongnu Empire (~200 BCE – 100 CE) · Xiongnu (Hsiung-nu nomadic empire)
Forested ridge north of Ulaanbaatar concealing over 200 deep shaft-tombs (6–18 m deep) of the Xiongnu steppe empire that confronted Han China.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Etowah Indian Mounds
Mississippian, Etowah phase 1000–1550 CE · Mississippian (Muscogean ancestors)
19-m Mississippian Temple mound with copper falcon plates and marble effigies.
🇸🇾 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).
🇬🇷 Greece · Archaeological wonder
Colossus of Rhodes site
Hellenistic 292–280 BCE; destroyed 226 BCE · Greek Rhodian (Hellenistic)
33-m bronze sun-god toppled by earthquake 54 years after raising.
🇴🇲 Oman · Archaeological wonder
Ubar (Ubaruq) Mustatil Field — Rub al Khali eastern edge (Shisr–Mudayy)
Neolithic (Arabian Humid Period, 5300–5000 BCE) · East Arabian Neolithic (Ubar–Wusta pastoral, Humid Period)
30 large mustatils (5300–5000 BCE) at Ubar — easternmost Rub al Khali cattle-cult province.
🇧🇷 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.
🇨🇳 China · Temple complex
Yungang Grottoes
Northern Wei 460–525 CE (Tanyao 460–465, later sinicized 471–524) · Xianbei Northern Wei Buddhist
45 major caves on 1-km sandstone cliff with 51,000 statues (460–524 CE) of Northern Wei before capital moved to Luoyang.
🇷🇺 Russia · Rock art
Shishkino Petroglyphs — Upper Lena Pillars Rock Art
Neolithic to Iron Age · Isakovo, Serovo, Kitoi, Glazkovo, Kurumchin
Upper Lena 3.5-km sandstone pillars with 2000 Neolithic–Iron elk, boats and shaman-horses, Okladnikov's type site.
🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan · Rock art
Cholpon-Ata Petroglyph Open-Air Museum
Bronze Age to Early Medieval (Andronovo to Göktürk) · Andronovo, Saka (Scythian), Wusun and Turkic nomads
Issyk-Kul glacial boulder field with 2000 petroglyphs 2000 BCE–800 CE and lake panorama.
🇲🇦 Morocco · Ancient village
Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou
Almoravid to modern (11th c–20th c; present fabric 17th–19th c) · Berber (Haratine) / Almoravid / Saadi
Fortified earthen ksar on Trans-Saharan caravan road with pisé towers, agadir granary and geometric clay façades.
🇨🇳 China · Ancient village
Hemudu Archaeological Site
Hemudu culture 5500–3300 BCE · Hemudu (Hangzhou Bay maritime rice farmers)
Waterlogged neolithic pile-dwelling settlement (5500–3300 BCE) on Yao River coastal plain, type-site of Hemudu culture famous for earliest Chinese rice cultivation (paddy with wooden plough),…
🇯🇵 Japan · Rock art
Fugoppe Cave
Late Jomon to Epi-Jomon / Zoku-Jomon (c.300 BCE–350 CE, figures ~1600 BP) · Zoku-Jomon
Zoku-Jomon rock art cave (800 engravings, ~1600 BP) — winged figures pecked into soft Miocene tuff on Maruyama Hill.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Archaeological wonder
Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria
Hellenistic Ptolemaic 297–280 BCE · Greek (Ptolemaic Alexandria)
100-m Ptolemaic lighthouse wonder whose lantern guided ancient Mediterranean.
🇨🇱 Chile · Geoglyph
Cerro Unita Giant
Late Intermediate Pica-Tarapaca 900-1450 CE · Tarapaca caravan and Pica oasis
86-m Atacama anthropomorphic giant (900-1450 CE) on Cerro Unita, largest prehistoric figure in Americas.
🇮🇶 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.
🇲🇳 Mongolia · Rock art
Khoit Tsenkher North Cave — Terkhiin Tsagaan Extension
Upper Palaeolithic to Bronze Age · Palaeolithic Altai hunter-gatherers
North branch of Mongolia's only Palaeolithic painted cave, 15000 BCE ochre ostriches and mammoths in limestone.
🇹🇭 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…
🇨🇳 China · Hydraulic works
Zhengguo Canal – Jingyang Irrigation Canal (Zheng Guo Qu)
Warring States to Han continuous · Qin with Han engineer Zheng Guo (鄭國)
246 BCE 'sabotage' canal that irrigated 27,000 ha and enabled Qin to unify China.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Temple complex
El-Tod (Djerty / Tuphium)
Old Kingdom to Ptolemaic (2480 BCE–30 BCE; peak Middle Kingdom 12th Dyn) · Ancient Egyptian
Montu war-falcon temple at El-Tod with Sesostris granite pillars and Tod Treasure hoard.
🇹🇯 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.
🇮🇶 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…
🇯🇴 Jordan · Earthwork
Jibal al-Khashabiyeh Kites
Late Neolithic to Chalcolithic · Eastern Badia Neolithic pastoral-hunters
16 interlinked limestone kite traps (5000-3500 BCE) forming 1.2-km chain blocking wadi mouths on Jibal al-Khashabiyeh.