🇺🇸 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.
🇧🇷 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.
🇲🇦 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.
🇨🇱 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.
🇯🇴 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.
🇨🇳 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.
🇨🇱 Chile · Geoglyph
Tiliviche Geoglyphs (Quebrada de Tiliviche)
Late Intermediate (Arica / Tarapacá) · Tarapacá / Arica caravan tradition
Westernmost Tarapacá geoglyph cluster on the southern flank of Quebrada Tiliviche (1,070 m), 2 km west of the Pan-American bridge. Camiña commune.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Hydraulic works
Jawa Dam – World's Oldest Known Dam Network (3000 BCE)
Chalcolithic to Early Bronze IA (Levantine proto-urban) · Levantine Early Bronze proto-urban pastoralists
3000 BCE basalt proto-city with 5 dams and canals—the second-oldest hydraulic network.
🇲🇳 Mongolia · Megalith
Salkhityn Am Deer Stone Complex – Khovsgol
Late Bronze to Early Iron (Mongolian Late Bronze) · Deer Stone–Khirigsuur Culture
14 Classic deer stones (1400–700 BCE) — 4.2-m flight-deer stelae in Khovsgol valley.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Earthwork
Benin City Walls (Iya)
Early to Late Edo Kingdom (800–1897 CE; peak 13th–16th c) · Edo (Bini) / Igodomigodo → Kingdom of Benin
16,000 km of ramparts and 20 m high ditch-bank earthworks enclosing 6,500 km² – world's longest pre-mechanical earthwork.
🇵🇪 Peru · Hydraulic works
Moray Agricultural Terraces
Late Horizon, Inca (~1300–1530 CE) · Inca
Three colossal natural depressions on the Maras plateau were amplified by Incas into concentric circular andenes up to 150 m across and 30 m deep, each terrace a microclimate ring with temperature…
🇧🇷 Brazil · Ancient city
Kuhikugu — Seki Lake Southern Reservoir Cluster K17
Xinguano late 1100–1600 CE · Xinguano (ancestral Kuikuro)
Southern reservoir satellite K17 of Kuhikugu — 140 m reservoir and plazas at Seki Lake south, Xingu hydraulic answer to Upano.
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia · Geoglyph
Al-Thula Desert Kite Field (Jubbah Basin – Ha'il)
Neolithic humid phase (Holocene) · Jubbah lake-shore hunters
Jubbah paleolake-marginal kites: 16 funnels at Umm Sanman piedmont below UNESCO rock-art cliffs.
🇨🇱 Chile · Geoglyph
Salar de Huasco East Ridge Geoglyphs (Eastern Ignimbrite Spur)
Formative to Late Intermediate (Tarapacá 400 BCE–1400 CE) · Tarapacá caravan (Alto Ramírez–Pica)
East-ridge geoglyphs 1.8 km east of Salar de Huasco: 22 ignimbrite figures including caravan llamas and solstice avenue at 3,835 m.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient village
Dhar Tichitt
Late Neolithic to Early Iron Age transition (1800–300 BCE) Pre-Ghana · Soninke ancestors / Tichitt Culture (agropastoralists)
250 km cuesta with 200+ Neolithic villages (1800 BCE) and earliest domesticated pearl millet 1900 BCE – West Africa's first sedentism.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán
Early Formative 1500–900 BCE (San Lorenzo phase, Olmec apogee 1500–1200) · Olmec (Olmeca, earliest Gulf Olmec capital)
Earliest Olmec capital (1500–900 BCE) on 50 ha artificial plateau (700 m long) raised 50 m above floodplain with surrounding ditch and berm modification of natural hill, controlling Coatzacoalcos…
🇲🇳 Mongolia · Tumulus
Kereksur (Khirigsuur) Field – Arkhangai Plateau
Late Bronze to Early Iron (Mongolian Bronze) · Mongolian Late Bronze pastoralists
80+ Late Bronze khirigsuurs (1400–800 BCE) on Arkhangai plateau — horse-skull cairn field at 1680 m.
🇵🇪 Peru · Geoglyph
Chaviña Pampa South Sector Geoglyphs (Quebrada Chaviña Sur)
Nasca-Huari Transition to Middle Horizon · Huarpa–Wari (Lucanas)
Chaviña south pampa: 20 spiral/camelid figures on Lucanas ignimbrite fan at 3,280 m.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Castalian Springs Mound Site
Mississippian Middle Cumberland (1100–1350 CE) · Mississippian (Castalian Springs phase)
Premier Middle Cumberland Mississippian town (1100–1350 CE) centered on mineral spring: two major platform mounds (Mound 1 6 m high 55×45 m, Mound 2 burial 3 m) plus smaller mound, large plaza and…
🇨🇱 Chile · Geoglyph
Salar del Sur Este Avenues Geoglyphs (Eastern Approach Corridor)
Late Intermediate to Late Horizon (Inca) · Atacameño–Inca caravan
Salar del Sur east corridor: 20 paired Avenues forming 1.4 km converging system toward playa.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Galindo — Platform Pyramid and Moche Urban Terrace (Moche Valley, Peru)
Late Moche / Middle Horizon transition (600–800 CE) · Moche (Late Moche valley polity)
Last Moche capital after Huacas de Moche collapse (600–800 CE), 5 km² planned city behind Gallows Hill with Plataforma A pyramid (55x35 m, 10 m high terrace) as palatial-ceremonial core, surrounded…
🇯🇵 Japan · Megalith
Kiusu Earthwork Burial Circles
Final Jomon 1200–800 BCE · Jomon Final Hokkaido
Late Jomon collective burial banked circles (1200–800 BCE) on terrace above Ushiku River at Chitose — 9 embanked circular enclosures diameter 12–75 m built of external ditch and internal bank housing…
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Old Oyo (Oyo-Ile)
Yoruba Oyo Empire (14th–1835 CE; capital 16th–1835) · Yoruba (Oyo)
Old Oyo (Oyo-Ile, Katunga) is the 16th–19th c. capital of Oyo Empire, 10 km triple earthen walls enclosing 6,000 ha savanna plain with 17 palace compounds (Kobi), council houses and reservoirs.