🇮🇹 Italy · Temple complex
Agrigento Valley of the Temples
Archaeic-Classical Greek 6th–5th c. BCE, peak 480–406 BCE · Greek (Doric Greeks from Gela/Rhodes-Crete)
Greek city ridge with best-preserved Doric temple in world: Concordia.
🇱🇰 Sri Lanka · Archaeological wonder
Sigiriya (Lion Rock)
Moriyan Anuradhapura · Sinhala
5th-century rock fortress-palace of Kassapa I atop 180 m column, frescoed Mirror Wall, Lion Gate, with summit palace, hydraulic gardens and moat. Short-lived capital 477–495 CE.
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Rock art
Tamgaly Kungei Ridge Sanctuary — Aiyrtau Sun Shrine
Bronze Age to Turkic (1400 BCE – 800 CE) · Andronovo to Saka to Turkic
Ridgetop with shaman drum and deer-headdress plus Saka kurgans.
🇫🇲 Federated States of Micronesia · Archaeological wonder
Nan Madol
Saudeleur Dynasty 1200–1500 CE; construction ~1180–1628 · Pohnpeian / Saudeleur
Abandoned basalt-and-coral city covering 18 km² of reef flats southeast of Pohnpei with ~92 artificial islets bounded by sea walls and tidal canals, with walls up to 8 m high built from columnar…
🇪🇸 Spain · Cave
Atapuerca — Gran Dolina and Galería Trench
Early to Middle Pleistocene · Acheulean / Homo antecessor
Key trench complex (Gran Dolina, Galería, Elefante) in Cueva Mayor-Cueva del Silo system, Sierra de Atapuerca, yielding Homo antecessor (850 ka, TD6), Homo heidelbergensis and earliest cannibalism…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Fort Ancient Earthworks
Hopewell 1–450 CE · Hopewell tradition
Largest hilltop enclosure: 40 ha with 67 gateways, Hopewell 1–450 CE, UNESCO 2023.
🇱🇧 Lebanon · Megalith
Baalbek
Phoenician to Roman (c. 16 BCE–250 CE major Roman phase) · Roman / Phoenician
Monumental Roman temple complex on earlier Phoenician tell, with Temple of Bacchus (best preserved Roman temple) and Trilithon – three megalithic limestone blocks 19 x 4.5 x 3.6 m, 800 tonnes each,…
🇰🇭 Cambodia · Hydraulic works
Angkor Eastern Baray Cascade & Preah Thkol Extension (East Baray Satellite)
Angkor early (Yasovarman) 9th–10th c · Khmer devaraja hydraulicians
Eastern Baray cascade satellite 4 km east of Angkor East Baray: 3 linked laterite reservoirs buffering monsoon overflow.
🇮🇱 Israel · Hydraulic works
Gihon Spring and Warren's Shaft (City of David water system, Jerusalem)
Middle Bronze II to Iron Age IIA–B (1800–580 BCE) · Canaanite (Middle Bronze) → Jebusite / Israelite–Judite
Jerusalem's 1800 BCE–701 BCE fortified perennial spring and karst shaft — 1,500-year water-security evolution.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Temple of Zeus at Aizanoi
Roman Imperial (High Empire) · Roman Phrygia (Aezanitai polis under Rome)
Hadrianic Ionic pseudodipteral 9×15 with intact vaulted cryptoporticus, Phrygian Roman gem.
🇨🇾 Cyprus · Archaeological wonder
Khirokitia
Neolithic
Khirokitia (sometimes spelled Choirokoitia; Greek: Χοιροκοιτία [çiɾociˈti.a], suggested meaning Pig-cradle, from χοίρος 'pig, boar' + κοιτίς 'place of origin, cradle') is an archaeological site on…
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient village
Dhar Walata (Oualata)
Neolithic to medieval (1500 BCE–17th c; historic 11th c) · Tichitt culture → Soninke Wagadu → Beidane Moors
Neolithic to oasis caravan terminus: Tichitt-culture compounds plus red-white geometric plaster houses of 11th-c Ghana twin capital Biru.
🇵🇪 Peru · Geoglyph
Chinchaysuyo Ceque Lines (Greater Cusco)
Late Horizon (Inca Imperial) · Inca (Quechua)
High-altitude (3,400 m) radial sacred geography of the Inca capital: 41 ceque lines radiating from Coricancha/Qorikancha to huaca shrines bounding Sacsayhuamán pampa and Chinchaysuyo suyu.
🇴🇲 Oman · Hydraulic works
Buraimi Aflaj System (Oman-UAE Border Oasis)
Iron Age to Modern (Hafit to Islamic) · Hajar oasis (Magan to Islamic)
Cross-border aflaj network (320 m, 24°15′N 55°45′E Buraimi) extending the UNESCO Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman (1207, 2006) from Nizwa-Sharqiyah to the Hajar-Buraimi piedmont.
🇦🇲 Armenia · Temple complex
Echmiadzin Cathedral and Churches — Vagharshapat
Early Christian Armenian (301–650 CE) · Early Armenian Apostolic; Urartian–Hellenistic pagan predecessor
301 CE Gregory the Illuminator's cathedral over Tir temple — world's oldest state church, Hripsime 618 tetraconch.
🇨🇳 China · Rock art
Zuojiang Huashan West Chongzuo Rock Art
Bronze Age to Han · Luoyue / Lạc Việt (ancient Zhuang ancestors), Dian periphery
West bank cliff opposite main Hua Mountain with bronze-drum anthropomorph sequence.
🇵🇪 Peru · Archaeological wonder
Chankillo Archaeoastronomical Complex
Early Horizon–Early Intermediate 250–200 BCE (Initial Late Chavín to Wari interstice, Casma-Sechín tradition) · Casma–Sechín / Pampas ( north-central desert, precedent to Moche for Casma valley, not Inca)
Oldest solar observatory in Americas (250–200 BCE): 13 evenly spaced 2–5 m towers on 300 m ridge crest marking annual solar horizon from two enclosed observation pavilions (western fortress hill and…
🇬🇷 Greece · Hydraulic works
Tunnel of Eupalinos (Efpalinos) — Samos Aqueduct
Archaic (600–500 BCE) · Ionian Greek (Samian) — engineer Eupalinos of Megara
Herodotean 1,036-m tunnel 550 BCE dug from both ends with 60 cm meet error.
🇲🇱 Mali · Archaeological wonder
Bandiagara Escarpment (Land of the Dogon)
Iron Age to Living (700 BCE–present) · Toloy / Tellem / Dogon
150-km 400-m cliff with 700 Tellem caves 11th–16th c, granaries, Dogon villages and Toloy archaeology.
🇨🇴 Colombia · Archaeological wonder
Tierradentro National Archaeological Park (Cauca – Tierradentro (eastern Cauca Andes, Paéz valley))
Regional Classic 600–900 CE (Tierradentro phase; pre-Tierradentro contexts 300 BCE–600 CE in shafts) · Tierradentro (Nasa Páez region, distinct from San Agustín, Cauca Andes)
World-unique Andean hypogea mountain cemetery: 162 known rock-cut underground chamber tombs (5–8 m deep via vertical winding stair duct, oval 12 m chambers with radial pillars, domed ceilings…
🇸🇪 Sweden · Ancient city
Birka
Viking Age Scandinavian 750–975 (8th–10th c) · Scandinavian Viking Age (Svear) — Svear–Gotlandic emporium
Birka (Björkö) — Scandinavian Viking Age emporium (c.750–975 CE) on Björkö island in Lake Mälaren, 30 km west Stockholm, Sweden's oldest town and UNESCO 555 (with Hovgården Adelsö estate).
🇹🇳 Tunisia · Ancient city
Kerkouane
Punic (Carthaginian) 6th–3rd c BCE · Carthaginian (Phoenician diaspora)
Only surviving pure Punic town, abandoned c.256 BCE with intact street grid, peristyle houses and purple-dye works.
🇰🇷 South Korea · Temple complex
Hwangnyongsa Temple Site
Three Kingdoms Silla 553–668 → Unified Silla 668–935 → Goryeo 935–1238 · Silla state Buddhism (Hwangnyongsa doctrinal)
Hwangnyongsa — largest Silla temple (553–1238 CE) 800 m north Wolseong, Gyeongju plain, excavated 1976–83 CHA (Gyeongju Institute).
🇪🇬 Egypt · Temple complex
Ramesseum
New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty · Ancient Egyptian
6-ha memorial of Ramesses II with 60-m pylons, Kadesh reliefs and 1,000-t colossus 'Ozymandias'.