🇺🇸 United States · Tell
Betatakin Cliff Dwelling
Ancestral Puebloan (c.600-1300 CE) · Anasazi/Puebloan (Basketmaker to Pueblo III)
Betatakin Cliff Dwelling — buried ancestral tell/village at Arizona.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Ebla
Early Bronze IVA–B (2400–1600 BCE) · Eblaite Semitic (Northwest Semitic)
Syrian superpower Ebla (c.3500–1600 BCE) with double-walled city (60 ha) and Royal Palace G — where Paolo Matthiae 1975 found the Ebla archive: 17,000 cuneiform tablets in Sumerian and Eblaite…
🇮🇶 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…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Nineveh
Neolithic to Abbasid (6000 BCE–present; Assyrian capital 705–612 BCE) · Assyrian / Babylonian / Persian / Hellenistic / Parthian
Great Assyrian capital under Sennacherib (705–681 BCE) extended by Ashurbanipal (668–630 BCE), Nineveh at fall (612 BCE) was world's largest city (~15 km walls, 100,000 inhabitants).
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Ancient city
Otrar Ancient Settlement
Kangju to Karakhanid to Mongol to Timurid · Sogdian / Turkic / Karakhanid / Mongol
Silk Road ghost city in Otrar Oasis at Syr Darya–Arys confluence, occupied 1st c. CE–18th c., apex 10th–12th c. as caravan metropolis of 10 ha citadel + 40 ha shakhristan.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Mari
Early Dynastic to Old Babylonian (Shakkanakku to Zimri-Lim) · Sumerian → Amorite Mariote
Middle Euphrates great city (c.2900–1759 BCE) controlling trade between Sumer and Amorite west, with the 2.5 ha Palace of Zimri-Lim (260 rooms, frescoes — Investiture of Zimri-Lim at Louvre) and the…
🇺🇸 United States · Tell
Homolovi II Pueblo
Ancestral Puebloan (c.600-1300 CE) · Anasazi/Puebloan (Basketmaker to Pueblo III)
Homolovi II Pueblo — buried ancestral tell/village at Arizona.
🇺🇸 United States · Tell
Kin Biniola Chaco Outlier
Ancestral Puebloan (c.600-1300 CE) · Anasazi/Puebloan (Basketmaker to Pueblo III)
Kin Biniola Chaco Outlier — buried ancestral tell/village at New Mexico.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient village
Tetitla Apartment Compound (Teotihuacan)
Classic Teotihuacan (Tlamimilolpa) · Teotihuacano (multi-ethnic)
One of 2,000 apartment compounds that made Teotihuacan (100 BCE–550 CE, 200,000 inhabitants — largest city in Americas) a planned grid city.
🇻🇳 Vietnam · Ancient city
Nen Chua Port (Takeo Port)
Funan Oc Eo culture (1st–7th century CE, Funan port peak 2nd–6th) · Funan (Oc Eo) → Chenla
Funan canal port (1st–7th cent) — 12 ha brick port 14.5 km from Oc Eo city via canal, 10 km from modern sea.
🇻🇳 Vietnam · Ancient city
Óc Eo Archaeological Site
Oc Eo–Funan culture 200 BCE–700 CE → Chenla · Austro-Asiatic Funan / Indianised Buddhist-Hindu
Funan port-city of Mekong Delta (c.200 BCE–12th c. CE) on ancient Austro-Asiatic maritime Silk Road, 450 ha moated and canal-grid city linking Mekong to coast 10 km inland — Roman medallions…
🇲🇽 Mexico · Tell
Azcapotzalco (Tepanec capital)
Postclassic (c.1200-1521 CE) · Mesoamerican Postclassic (Tepanec-Aztec)
Azcapotzalco (Tepanec capital) — buried postclassic tell/village at Mexico City.
🇨🇳 China · Archaeological wonder
Erlitou – Xia Capital
Early Bronze Age (~1900–1500 BCE; Xia to early Shang) · Erlitou ( Xia, early Bronze Age Chinese)
300-ha rammed-earth palace enclosure on the Luo River where 11,000 m² Palace No.1 and a bronze foundry document the transition from Longshan Neolithic to bronze kingship.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Tell
Tell Nimrin (Tell esh-Shuna North vicinity)
Chalcolithic-Iron Age (c.5000-600 BCE) · Levantine EBA to Iron Age (Jordan Valley)
Tell Nimrin (Tell esh-Shuna North vicinity) — buried chalcolithic-iron tell/village at Balqa Governorate.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Bakla Tepe
EBA (c.3000-2000 BCE) · Western Anatolian EBA (Troy I-II, Yortan sphere)
Bakla Tepe — buried eba tell/village at İzmir Province.
🇲🇱 Mali · Ancient city
Djenné-Djeno
Bio. Iron Age to Medieval (c.250 BCE–1400 CE; peak 400–1200 CE) · Djenné-Djeno culture / Inland Niger Delta Iron Age / Soninke-Bozo
Oldest sub-Saharan city (250 BCE–1400 CE) on Inland Niger Delta: 33 ha tell 8 m high with 69 mounds cluster spanning 4 km, without stone architecture but rich bio-archaeological sequence: slag, rice,…
🇯🇴 Jordan · Tell
Tell Deir Alla (Pethor/Succoth)
Chalcolithic-Iron Age (c.5000-600 BCE) · Levantine EBA to Iron Age (Jordan Valley)
Tell Deir Alla (Pethor/Succoth) — buried chalcolithic-iron tell/village at Balqa Governorate.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Megiddo
Chalcolithic to Iron Age / Persian · Canaanite → Egyptian → Israelite
Strategic tell commanding Via Maris (Egypt-Mesopotamia road) through Jezreel, occupied 7000 BCE–586 BCE with 26 strata, Thutmosis III 1457 BCE battle (first battle in recorded history), Canaanite…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Kumtepe
EBA (c.3000-2000 BCE) · Western Anatolian EBA (Troy I-II, Yortan sphere)
Kumtepe — buried eba tell/village at Çanakkale Province.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Lachish
Early Bronze to Babylonian destruction 587 BCE · Canaanite → Israelite/Judahite
Major Canaanite city-state and Judahite fortress second only to Jerusalem (Joshua, Hezekiah, Sennacherib's 701 BCE reliefs at British Museum).
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Apamea
Seleucid to Byzantine Crusader · Seleucid → Roman → Byzantine
Seleucid garrison city and military elephant depot (Seleucus' 500 Indian elephants), later Roman Apamea with the grandest colonnaded cardo in the East — 1,850 m long, 37 m wide, 1,200 columns with…
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Ashkelon
Early Bronze to Crusader 1191 CE · Canaanite → Philistine → Phoenician → Roman
Five-period tells (Canaanite vaulted mudbrick gate — oldest arch in the world c.1850 BCE, 4 m high; Philistine emporium of titans with 15,000 sq m market; Phoenician Tyrian-purple, Greek, Roman,…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Lagash
Jemdet Nasr to Ur III / Old Babylonian · Sumerian
Sumerian city-state Lagash (Tell al-Hiba proper) and its religious capital Girsu (Tello, 25 km SE) — often conflated as Lagash-Girsu.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Paquimé (Casas Grandes)
Postclassic (Medio/Chihuahua culture) · Mogollon-Paquimé (Oasisamerica)
Largest pre-Hispanic pueblo city of northern Mexico (c.1130–1340 CE, 70 ha, population ~2,500) with multi-storey adobe apartments, T-shaped doors, I-shaped ballcourts (Mesoamerican), macaw breeding…