🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Sayburç
Pre-Pottery Neolithic A–B · Taş Tepeler / Upper Mesopotamian PPN
Taş Tepeler PPN sanctuary with narrative leopard-human-phallus reliefs matching Karahan Tepe phallic imagery.
🇵🇪 Peru · Temple complex
El Brujo
Early Intermediate–Middle Horizon · Moche (North Coast)
Moche polychrome pyramid complex (100 BCE–750 CE) with Lady of Cao tattooed queen burial and 30-m muraled Huaca.
🇬🇪 Georgia · Ancient city
Armaztsikhe and Bagineti — Armazi, Capital of Iberia
Hellenistic Iberia to Early Medieval (4th c. BCE–8th c. CE; peak 1st–4th c. CE) · Kartvelian Iberian (Eastern Georgian) → Hellenistic influence → Roman client → Sasanian interlude → early Christian
Iberian kingdom capitals — Bagineti acropolis and Aramaic bilingual city across Kura gorge.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Nakum Acropolis Pyramids
Maya Classic to Postclassic · Maya Nakum polity
Holmul River city Nakum (250–1200 CE): 15 m Acropolis Building 99 palace-pyramid and triadic Group East, Postclassic stela plaza — rare Terminal Classic continuity.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Bubastis – Tell Basta (Cult of Bastet)
Old Kingdom to Late Antiquity (4th Dyn – 4th c. CE) · Egyptian (Delta Libyan dynasties)
Bastet cat-goddess capital – island red-granite temple and 100,000 cat mummies on 14 m tell.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Myra and Andriake
Classical Lycian to Byzantine · Lycian → Hellenistic Greek → Roman → Byzantine
Lycian cliff-tomb metropolis of St Nicholas with river theatre and purple-dye port granary.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Pyramid
Río Bec Structure V-N Pyramid (Central Plaza)
Late Classic Maya (Río Bec) · Maya (Río Bec)
Type-site false-tower pyramid Structure V-N at Río Bec — 8 m solid-tower platform pyramid c.650–850 CE anchoring 100-structure Río Bec city.
🇮🇱 Israel · Tell
Tel Dan
Neolithic to Iron Age/Crusader (peak Middle Bronze to Iron II, 2000–733 BCE) · Canaanite (Sidonian) → Israelite (Dan tribe) → Aramaean → Israelite kingdom → Assyrian
Bubbling Jordan spring tell with world's oldest intact triple mudbrick arch (1750 BCE) and House of David stele.
🇦🇲 Armenia · Ancient city
Dvin — Ancient Capital of Armenia
Late Antiquity to Medieval (4th–13th century; peak 7th–10th) · Arsacid Armenia → Sasanian marzpan → Arab Dabil emirate → Bagratuni → Seljuk
100 ha medieval Silk Road capital — trilobed palace, glazed-market vault and ceramic aqueduct.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Holmul (Witzná) Triadic Pyramids
Maya Preclassic to Late Classic · Maya (Kanul? Witzná polity)
Holmul Witzná (800 BCE–900 CE): Preclassic 20 m Great Pyramid with Classic triadic frieze Building N (8 m stucco masks, feathered serpent) — longest stratified Maya sequence.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
El Perú-Waka' Pyramids
Maya Classic · Maya Waka' kingdom (Calakmul ally)
Maya royal city Waka' (El Perú) above San Juan River: 18 m Stela Plaza north pyramid, tomb of Lady K'abel (Stela 34) Kalakmul queen, 250–900 CE.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Çavuştepe
Urartian Kingdom late 8th century BCE · Urartian (Biainili)
Twin-ridge Urartian palatial city of Sarduri II with Haldi temple and 5 km Urartian canal.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Oymaağaç Höyük (ancient Nerik)
Early Bronze to Iron Age (3000–600 BCE; peak Hittite Empire 1400–1180 BCE) · Hattian → Hittite → Kaška → Phrygian
Holy city Nerik — storm-god temple over sacred spring tunnel, lost to Kaška then re-excavated.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Xanthos-Letoon
Bronze Age to Byzantine (peak Classical Lycian 6th–4th c. BCE and Roman) · Lycian (Anatolian Indo-European) → Persian satrapy → Hellenistic → Roman
Lycian capital Xanthos and marsh sanctuary Letoon — trilingual stele solved Lycian.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Perge
Late Bronze Age to Late Antiquity (peak Hellenistic–Severan) · Hittite Anatolian → Pamphylian Greek → Roman
Pamphylian canal-avenue Hellenistic city with twin gate-towers and huge stadium.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Girsu (Tello)
Ubaid to Old Babylonian (c.5000–1700 BCE; peak ED IIIb–Lagash II) · Ubaid → Sumerian (Lagash) → Akkadian → Ur III → Isin-Larsa → Babylonian
Lagash state capital with Gudea statues, 50,000 tablets and newly CT-mapped canal temple.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Archaeological wonder
Wadi Feynan and Wadi Arabah Copper Belt
Chalcolithic to Byzantine (c.4100 BCE–600 CE; peak Iron Age II) · Egyptian New Kingdom (eastern Timna sphere) → Edomite/Neo-Assyrian desert polity → Nabataean → Roman chrome convict mines
Jordanian Arabah slag-mountain copper belt — Iron Age Edomite desert industry outweighing Timna.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Ayanis
Late Urartian Kingdom (early 7th century BCE) · Urartian (Biainili) late imperial
Rusa II's earthquake-collapsed Haldi temple-fortress with 4,000 bronze votives frozen mid-repair.
🇮🇷 Iran · Temple complex
Takht-e Soleyman — Throne of Solomon and Azargoshnasb Fire Temple
Sasanian Empire 224–651 CE (peak 5th–7th century) → Ilkhanid 13th century reuse · Sasanian Zoroastrian → Ilkhanid Mongol Islamic palace phase
Sasanian Great Fire temple on a 120 m artesian lake — shahs' coronation sanctuary, later Ilkhanid palace.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Alacahöyük
Chalcolithic to Phrygian (c.4500–700 BCE; peak EB III and Hittite Empire) · Hattian → Hittite (Nesite) → Phrygian
Hattian–Hittite fortified city with Sphinx Gate and Early Bronze royal tombs rich in solar-disk bronzes.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Huaca Montegrande (Jaén)
Late Preceramic–Initial Period 3000–2500 BCE · Marañón Amazon-Andes (Jaén pre-Carral)
5300-year spiral temple in Amazonian Jaén with world's oldest cacao 5300 BP and Maltese cross hearth.
🇮🇱 Israel · Archaeological wonder
Timna Valley Copper Mines
Chalcolithic to Iron Age (~4500 BCE – 800 BCE; peak New Kingdom Egyptian 14th–12th century BCE) · Egyptian New Kingdom, Midianite/Edomite and early Arabah nomadic
Three-sided sandstone valley north of Eilat where 10,000 shafts and 1.5 million tonnes of slag mark one of the world's earliest industrial landscapes.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Aspendos
Bronze Age to Byzantine (peak Antonine 2nd century CE) · Pamphylian Greek → Hellenistic → Roman → Byzantine → Seljuk
Pamphylian city with the world's most intact 15,000-seat Roman theatre (155 CE) and inverted-siphon aqueduct.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Van Fortress and Tushpa — Capital of Urartu
Urartian Kingdom (9th–6th century BCE; later Urartian–Median–Achaemenid–Ottoman) · Urartian (Biainili) → Median → Achaemenid → Ottoman
Urartu's 100 m limestone citadel over Lake Van with royal rock-tombs and Xerxes trilingual.