🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Euromos Temple of Zeus Lepsynos
Archaic to Roman (Carian to Imperial) · Carian, Hellenistic, Roman
Selimiye plain Corinthian Zeus Lepsynos 2nd CE with 16 standing columns, best in Anatolia, 12 km NW Milas.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Submerged site
Menouthis – Submerged Canopic City of Isis
Late Pharaonic to Late Byzantine (380 BCE – 8th c. CE) · Egyptian-Greek / Greco-Roman / Byzantine
Canopic Isis oracle town adjoining Heracleion — sanctuary and quays 5–8 m down in Abu Qir Bay.
🇬🇷 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.
🇬🇷 Greece · Temple complex
Ialysos Athena Polias Temple — Filerimos Hill
Geometric to Medieval · Mycenaean, Dorian Rhodian, Byzantine, Knights
Rhodes 267-m Filerimos Doric Athena Polias 3rd BCE atop Minoan–Knights stratigraphy with sacred road and fountain.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Yungang Grottoes — Western Caves Extension (Caves 26–40)
Northern Dynasties (Northern Wei late) · Tuoba Wei (Xianbei) Buddhist with Han artisan school
UNESCO Yungang western 15-cave zone 494–525 with central-pillar and collapsed colossus.
🇲🇽 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).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Priene — Temple of Athena Polias and Grid City
Late Classical to Hellenistic (350–133 BCE) with Roman upkeep to 600 CE · Ionian Greek (Milesian) and Hellenistic Attalid
Alexander-dedicated Athena temple 334 BCE by Pytheos and pristine Hippodamian grid city.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Temple of Athena at Assos
Archaic (600–500 BCE) · Aeolian Greek under Lydian and later Persian rule (Assian polis)
Only Archaic Doric temple in Anatolia 530 BCE, sculpted architrave atop 238-m acropolis.
🇬🇷 Greece · Temple complex
Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron
Archaic to Hellenistic (700–200 BCE) · Athenian (Ionic) — Artemis Brauronia
420 BCE Doric 6×11 with 44-m pi stoa where Athenian bear-girls (arktoi) danced initiation, Iphigenia myth.
🇵🇪 Peru · Ancient city
Cahuachi (Ica – Nazca Province)
Early Intermediate 400 BCE–450 CE (Paracas–Proto-Nazca to Early Nazca, peak 100 BCE–450 CE) · Nazca (Nasca, south coast)
Capital and pilgrimage center of Nazca culture (400 BCE–500 CE) – 24 km² desert metropolis with 34+ pyramidal adobe mounds (Great Pyramid 22 m high, 100×150 m base; Orange Pyramid), plazas (Great…
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Matisi Grottoes — Southern Sunan Secondary Cliff
Sixteen Kingdoms to Tang (Northern Liang 420 peak) · Hexi Corridor mixed Han–Tibetan Buddhist (Juqu Mengxun lineage)
Mati Si southern 12-cave cliff 420 CE Thousand-Buddha with hoof-print legend and hanging plankway.
🇵🇪 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.
🇨🇳 China · Temple complex
Beishan Grottoes Dazu
Tang to Southern Song · Late Tang to Song Sichuan Buddhist (Wei Junjing to Zhao Zhifeng line)
UNESCO Beishan's 290-niche scholar's cliff 2 km north of Dazu with Song filial piety reliefs.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Temple of Zeus Olbios at Uzuncaburç (Olba-Diocaesarea)
Hellenistic to Early Roman (Seleucid to Julio-Claudian) · Isaurian–Cilician priest state, Seleucid and Roman Cilicia
Taurus priest-kingdom hilltop Corinthian Zeus temple 6×12 with Zeus lightning entablature, Olba.
🇪🇹 Ethiopia · Temple complex
Debre Damo Monastery
Aksumite to Zagwe (6th c–12th c; core 6th c Nine Saints) · Ethiopian Orthodox (Aksumite Christian) monastic
Amba-top monastery accessible only by 15 m leather rope, founded 6th c by Nine Saint Aregawi on precipice with Aksumite wood-monkey-head church.
🇹🇷 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.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Smyrna Temple of Athena — Bayraklı (Old Smyrna)
Geometric to Archaic (Old Smyrna) · Ionian Greek (Aiolian foundation)
Bayraklı 630 BCE hekatompedon Athena with Aeolic capitals, earliest Ionian temple on Old Smyrna 8th BCE walls.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Kizil Caves — Western Valley Extension (Western Kizil)
Early Medieval Central Asian (Tocharian B) · Tocharian Buddhist (Kucha Kingdom) with Gandhara influence
Kucha Tocharian western 42-cave valley 400–700 CE diamond ceilings and lapis blue, German-removal archive.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Nysa on the Maeander — Temple of Apollo and Library Terrace
Hellenistic to Roman · Seleucid, Pergamene, Carian
Maeander university city with Apollo temple, bouleuterion-library of Strabo and 100-m theatre tunnel, Hellenistic.
🇸🇩 Sudan · Pyramid
Sai Island Pyramid & Temple Complex
Kerma Classic to Napatan (2500–300 BCE) · Kerma / Egyptian / Kushite
Strategic Nile island town with Kerma tumuli and Napatan small pyramids — Egyptian fortress-temple city 1550 BCE on 12 km Sai Island between 2nd–3rd cataracts.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Kaunos Temple of Demeter and Rock Tombs Terrace
Classical to Roman (Carian to Lycian) · Carian, Lycian, Hellenistic Rhodian
Kaunos Dalyan Demeter terrace with 4th BCE altar and 6 Lycian temple-tombs, Carian-Greek border sanctuary.
🇵🇪 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.
🇲🇱 Mali · Temple complex
Gao – Tomb of Askia
Medieval Songhai (9th–17th c; peak Imperial 1464–1591) · Songhai / Tuareg (Songhai Empire)
Songhai Empire capital's 17 m pyramidal earthen tomb of Askia Mohammad I (1495) east-bank Niger assembly ground.
🇮🇳 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.