🇪🇬 Egypt · Archaeological wonder
Abu Mena
Late Roman to Early Byzantine 4th–7th c. CE, peak 5th–6th c. · Coptic Christian / Byzantine Egyptian
Desert pilgrimage city of Saint Menas, 4th–7th c., now endangered by water table rise.
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🇵🇪 Peru · Ancient city
Conchopata
Middle Horizon (c.600–800 CE) Wari Empire · Wari (Huari)
Conchopata, 9 km northeast of Ayacucho city at 2,800 m, is the celebrated Wari satellite city where William Isbell and Anita Cook uncovered the empire's face-neck jar cult.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Mangomarca
Late Intermediate (c.1200–1470 CE) – Lima and Ychsma-Chancay · Lima – Wari – Ychsma – Chancay
Mangomarca is a compound adobe pyramid-temple complex terraced on the right-bank terrace of the lower Rímac at San Juan de Lurigancho, Lima.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Cempoala
Postclassic (c.1200–1519 CE) Totonac – Late Classic foundations · Totonac
Cempoala (Nahuatl Cēmpoalātl, place of twenty waters) is the lowland Totonac metropolis on the coastal plain at Úrsulo Galván, Veracruz, at 10 m asl.
🇱🇧 Lebanon · Temple complex
Temple of Eshmun — Bustan el-Sheikh, Sidon
Persian (Achaemenid) to Roman Imperial · Phoenician Sidonian; Achaemenid Persian patronage; Hellenized then Romanized
Phoenician Asclepieion 529 BCE–300 CE on Awali/Bostrenos: Throne of Astarte and baby votive healing pool.
🇵🇪 Peru · Ancient city
Huaycán de Pariachi
Late Intermediate – Late Horizon (c.900–1532 CE) Ychsma – Inca · Ychsma – Inca (Ichma)
Huaycán de Pariachi dominates an alluvial wedge above the lower Rímac at Ate, east Lima. As the largest Ychsma center on the central coast before Pachacamac's Inca remodelling, its monumental core…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Myus Temple of Dionysus — Avşar Kalesi Peninsula
Archaic to Roman · Ionian, Hellenistic, Carian
Avşar Peninsula white marble Dionysus 2nd BCE (Hermogenes) with theatre above Maeander silt gulf, smallest Ionian League city.
🇧🇿 Belize · Ancient city
El Pilar
Middle Preclassic – Terminal Classic (c.800 BCE–1000 CE) Lowland Maya · Maya (Lowland)
El Pilar straddles the Belize-Guatemala international boundary on a 340m-high escarpment 12 km north of San Ignacio, Belize.
🇬🇷 Greece · Temple complex
Temple of Olympian Zeus (Olympieion)
Archaic to Roman Imperial (638-year build) · Athenian tyranny, Hellenistic Seleucid, Roman Imperial
638-year colossal: Pisistratid → Antiochus–Cossutius → Hadrian, 8×20 Corinthian 17 m columns, largest mainland.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Muyil
Late Preclassic – Postclassic (c.300 BCE–1519 CE) continuous; Early Classic–Late Classic peak · Maya (East Coast / Southern Lowland)
Muyil (Chunyaxché, Chan Muuch) is the long-lived lowland Maya city on the karst ridge at the Muyil lagoon inside the Sian Ka'an Biosphere, Quintana Roo (10 m).
🇵🇪 Peru · Temple complex
Buena Vista
Late Preceramic – Initial Period (c.3500–1200 BCE) Andes · Norte Chico – Chavín-related Late Preceramic
Buena Vista in the middle Chillón Valley is a Late Preceramic fox-temple pyramid famous for its precocious solstice astronomy.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Erythrae (Erythrai) — Temple of Athena Polias and Sibyl Rock
Archaic to Byzantine (1100 BCE – 600 CE) · Ionian Greek (Erythraean)
Erythraean peninsula Athena cliff temple and Sibyl throne opposite Chios.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Las Aldas
Late Preceramic – Initial Period (c.2500–1000 BCE) – Casma-Sechín · Casma-Sechín (Preceramic to Initial)
Las Aldas is a monumental U-shaped temple-plaza on a coastal eolian terrace at Casma, Ancash, at 30 m above the Pacific.
🇮🇳 India · Rock-cut
Pataleshwar Cave Temple, Pune
Early Medieval (Rashtrakuta) · Rashtrakuta Shaivite Brahminical (Kannarid influence)
Urban Deccan basalt 8th-c Shiva quarry-temple 40×28 m with circular Nandi mandapa, unfinished Rashtrakuta.
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Sonari
Mauryan 3rd c BCE → Sunga 2nd c BCE → Gupta 5th c · Mauryan Buddhist sangha → Sunga
Sanchi mandala outlier 10 km SW — 8 stupas (Stupa 2 relic casket, Brahmi) on Betwa ridge.
🇦🇲 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.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Ancient city
El Tintal
Middle to Late Preclassic 700 BCE–150 CE (Preclassic fluorescence, collapsed c.150 CE Mirador hiatus) · Maya (Preclassic Mirador Basin state, Late Preclassic centralized polity)
Second-largest Preclassic Maya city after El Mirador (700 BCE–400 CE, 30 km southeast of Mirador): 250 m-high-adjacent Henequén pyramid (60 m high ×190×165 m, seventh-tallest Maya pyramid), Mano de…
🇧🇿 Belize · Ancient village
Cuello
Early Preclassic – Classic (c.1200 BCE–900 CE) Preclassic Maya · Maya (Lowland Preclassic)
Cuello lies on the Cuello estate adjacent to the Cuello rum distillery 2 km west of Orange Walk, north Belize, at 30 m.
🇬🇷 Greece · Temple complex
Erechtheion — Acropolis of Athens
Late Classical (Peloponnesian War) · Classical Athenian
421–405 BCE asymmetric Ionic with Caryatids, housing Athena Polias and Poseidon-Erechtheus on Mycenaean terrace.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Alta Vista Chalchihuites
Classic – Epiclassic (c.400–850 CE) Chalchihuites – Coyotlatelco frontier · Chalchihuites – Canutillo / Teuchitlán-related frontier
Alta Vista Chalchihuites in northern Zacatecas is Mesoamerica's far-northern Venus frontier town at 2,190 m on the Tropic of Cancer.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Herakleia ad Latmos — Athena Temple on Granos Hill
Hellenistic · Hekatomnid Carian, Hellenistic
Lake Bafa gneiss city with 6.5-km Hellenistic walls and 3rd BCE Athena temple above Endymion grotto.
🇪🇨 Ecuador · Ancient city
Pumapungo – Tomebamba
Late Horizon Inca (c.1470–1532 CE) – Cañari antecedents · Inca (Tupaq Yupanki – Wayna Qhapaq) over Cañari
Pumapungo is the Inca palace-garden quarter of Tomebamba, Wayna Qhapaq's planned northern capital in modern Cuenca at 2,550 m.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Tianlongshan Western Grottoes — Shanxi Western Cliff
Northern Dynasties to Tang · Northern Qi–Tang northern Shanxi Buddhist
Taiyuan Heavenly Dragon western 8-cave extension 560–750 with 1924 removal and scaffolding holes.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Temple complex
Cañada de la Virgen
Epiclassic – Postclassic (c.530–1040 CE) Bajío – Otomi–Toltec: Lerma tradition · Lerma – Bajío / Otomi
Cañada de la Virgen in the Laja valley saddle near San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, is a mountaintop Epiclassic observatory-city (530–1040 CE) of the Bajío–Otomi tradition at 1,950 m.