🇱🇾 Libya · Ancient city
Cyrene
Archaic Greek to Byzantine (631 BCE–643 CE) · Greek / Hellenistic / Roman / Byzantine
100-ha Theran Greek metropolis with Apollo and Zeus sanctuaries, agora and 1000+ sarcophagus tombs.
🇹🇩 Chad · Rock art
Ennedi Plateau & Niola Doa Rock Art
Neolithic to Islamic (6000 BCE–16th c CE) · Saharan herders (Bovid, Horse, Camel groups)
600-km Saharan massif with Niola Doa 200-m cattle-horse frieze and 3,000 images 6th millennium–16th c.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
El Tajín
Early Classic to Epiclassic 600–1200 CE (apogee 800–1150, Veracruz Central tradition) · Classic Veracruz / Totonac (Gulf Coast, central Veracruz cultural tradition)
Classic Veracruz capital (600–1200 CE) famed for Pyramid of the Niches (365 niches – one per solar day – 18 m high with 365 + 7 step symbolism, seven-storey enclave temple), 17 ballcourts (most of…
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan · Ancient city
Konye-Urgench (Kunya-Urgench)
Achaemenid 5th c BCE → Khwarezmshahs 11th–13th c CE → Golden Horde · Khwarezmian → Seljuk → Khwarezmshahs → Mongol
Konye-Urgench — capital of Khwarezm (Achaemenid–Golden Horde, 5th c BCE–17th c CE) 35 km south Uzbekistan border, excavated 1930s Tolstov and 1990s Berlin.
🇯🇵 Japan · Ancient village
Odai Yamamoto I Site
Incipient Jomon (15000–10000 BCE) → Initial Jomon (10000–6000 BCE) · Incipient–Initial Jomon (Tsugaru)
Initial Jomon (Incipient) settlement (c.15000–13000 BCE) at Sotogahama, Tsugaru Peninsula — 0.7 ha terrace with earliest pottery in Japan (Odai Yamamoto I pottery, 16500 cal BP via AMS), ground…
🇨🇦 Canada · Ancient village
L'Anse aux Meadows
Viking Age 1000–1006 CE (Norse Vinland exploration) · Norse Greenlanders (Icelandic Norse under Leifr Eiríksson / Thorfinn Karlsefni saga context)
Only confirmed Norse village in North America and earliest European settlement (~1000–1006 CE): eight turf-and-timber sod houses (halls 25×5 m, iron smithy, carpentry shed, charcoal kilns) on Épaves…
🇱🇧 Lebanon · Ancient city
Byblos
Neolithic to Medieval (8800 BCE–present; urban from c.5000 BCE) · Neolithic / Canaanite / Phoenician / Egyptian / Roman / Crusader
Continuously inhabited since Neolithic, Byblos is one of the oldest cities in the world. Phoenician port that gave the Bible its name (byblos = papyrus), with layers from Neolithic, Chalcolithic,…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Mount Nemrut (Nemrut Dağı)
Hellenistic Commagene (c.62 BCE under Antiochos I Theos) · Commagenian (Armenian/Greek/Persian syncretic) Hellenistic
Hierotheseion (tomb-sanctuary) of Antiochos I of Commagene (69–34 BCE), Nemrut Dağı tops 2,150 m peak with 50 m tumulus of crushed rock surrounded by three terraces bearing 8–10 m colossal seated…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Arslantepe (Malatya)
Late Chalcolithic to Neo-Hittite (5000 BCE–700 BCE; palace phase 3400–3000 BCE; Neo-Hittite 1200–712 BCE) · Late Chalcolithic / Kura-Araxes / Hittite / Neo-Hittite
Tell city type site for emergence of state and palace economy (3400–3000 BCE): Late Chalcolithic palace (Room A 900) with wall paintings, storerooms with mass-produced bowls, sword hoard (earliest…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Archaeological wonder
Takht Abbey Well Archaeological Complex
Byzantine (330–1453 CE) · Byzantine
Takht Abbey Well Archaeological Complex in Central Anatolia, Turkey is a Byzantine (330–1453 CE) archaeological wonder attributed to Byzantine culture.
🇾🇪 Yemen · Hydraulic works
Marib Dam
Sabaean Kingdom, Early South Arabian (~1750 BCE – 570 CE) · Sabaean (South Arabian, Kingdom of Saba)
Earthfill diversion dam spanning the Wadi Adhanah and flanked by the limestone North and South Sluices with Sabaean monumental inscriptions.
🇪🇸 Spain · Rock art
Siega Verde Rock Art
Gravettian to Magdalenian ~20–11 ka BP · Upper Paleolithic Iberian
2 km open-air schist engravings paired with Côa Valley, 443 Paleolithic pecked figures.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Earthwork
Silbury Hill
Late Neolithic 2400–2300 BCE · Late Neolithic Britons (Grooved Ware)
Europe's tallest prehistoric mound – 39-m artificial hill with unknown purpose.
🇩🇿 Algeria · Archaeological wonder
Tassili n'Ajjer
Epipaleolithic to Late Pastoral (c.8000 BCE–1000 CE; major painting phases Round Head 6000 BCE–5000 BCE, Pastoral 4500–2000 BCE) · Kel Tamasheq predecessor hunter-gatherer / Pastoral Neolithic / Garamantes
72,000 km² sandstone plateau with one of world's largest rock art concentrations: 15,000 engravings and paintings spanning 6000 BCE–first centuries CE – Bubalus, Round Head (10,000–6000 BCE,…
🇮🇷 Iran · Archaeological wonder
Bisotun (Behistun)
Achaemenid to Sassanian (main inscription 520 BCE; later reliefs 148 BCE–6th c CE) · Achaemenid Persian / Seleucid / Parthian / Sassanian
Immense trilingual Rock of Behistun (Darius I, 520 BCE): Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian cuneiform narrating Darius' accession and defeat of 10 rebel kings – the Rosetta Stone for cuneiform…
🇨🇳 China · Rock art
Zuojiang Huashan Ningming — Luoyue Serpent Cliff
Warring States to Eastern Han (403 BCE – 220 CE) · Luoyue (proto-Zhuang) Boyue culture
Serpent-bend cliff with dragon and drum motifs 8 km upstream from main panel.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Hatra
Parthian to Sassanian (c.200 BCE–241 CE) · Parthian-Arab (Hatrene Aramaic) / Hellenistic influence
Fortified Parthian-Arab desert city (2nd c BCE–241 CE) with circular walls 6.4 km circuit resisting Trajan (117) and Septimius Severus (198).
🇪🇸 Spain · Rock art
Cave of El Castillo Polychrome
Upper Paleolithic (40,800 BCE Aurignacian to Magdalenian) · Aurignacian, Gravettian, Magdalenian (Homo sapiens & Neanderthal debate)
Cave of El Castillo (Monte Castillo, Puente Viesgo) – UNESCO Paleolithic Cave Art 1985: 40,800-year-old red ochre stencilled hand (U-Th oldest in Europe, possibly Neanderthal), bison, horses, cervids…
🇬🇷 Greece · Temple complex
Tiryns
Mycenaean 1600–1100 BCE, acme 1300–1200 BCE · Mycenaean
Cyclopean citadel with earliest vaulted galleries in Europe and megaron palace.
🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Fatehpur Sikri
Mughal 1571–1585 CE · Mughal (Akbar)
Mughal imperial city founded 1571 by Akbar as capital to honor Sufi Salim Chishti, combining Persian, Timurid and Gujarati-Rajasthani architecture in red sandstone.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Dazu Beishan Rock Carvings — Chongqing Northern Mountain Gallery
Late Tang to Southern Song (892 – 1178 CE) · Chinese Buddhist with Song gentry patron
Beishan 264 caves with 10k slender Song statues 892–1178 at Dazu north hill.
🇯🇵 Japan · Ancient city
Heijō Palace (Heijō-kyō)
Nara Period 710–784 CE (with brief return 745–784) · Yamato / Nara Japanese (Ritsuryo)
Imperial palace of Heijō-kyō capital (710–784 CE) modeling Tang Chang'an, 1.2×1.6 km enclosure with Daigokuden audience hall, Suzaku Gate and Eastern Palace Garden ponds.
🇮🇳 India · Archaeological wonder
Rani ki Vav (Queen's Stepwell)
Solanki Chaulukya 1022–1063 CE · Gujarati / Solanki Hindu (Maru-Gurjara)
Jewel-box stepwell (1022–1063 CE) built by Queen Udayamati in memory of Bhima I, 64 m long with seven descending galleries and 500+ principal sculptures.
🇮🇷 Iran · Hydraulic works
Qanat of Zarch, Yazd
Achaemenid to present ~700 BCE–present · Persian (Median/Achaemenid onward)
71 km 2,115-shaft Zarch qanat - world's longest - still feeding Yazd after 3,000 years.