🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Tal-e Atashi
Late 5th millennium BCE · Kerman Chalcolithic
Late 5th millennium BCE Kerman Chalcolithic tell at Kerman Province, Bam plain – chalcolithic village near bam with mudbrick houses (dims Mound 3 ha, 6 m Chalcolithic).
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Tol-e Bashi
Neolithic–Chalcolithic (c.6000–4500 BCE, Mushki–Bashi–Bakun) · Fars Neolithic Mushki → Bashi → Bakun
Ramjerd Neolithic tell 5 m high (Mushki–Shamsabad, early painted Mushki ware) NW of Persepolis.
🇮🇷 Iran · Archaeological wonder
Bisotun (Behistun)
Achaemenid to Sassanian (main inscription 520 BCE; later reliefs 148 BCE–6th c CE) · Achaemenid Persian / Seleucid / Parthian / Sassanian
Immense trilingual Rock of Behistun (Darius I, 520 BCE): Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian cuneiform narrating Darius' accession and defeat of 10 rebel kings – the Rosetta Stone for cuneiform…
🇮🇷 Iran · Cave
Kunji Cave
Middle to Upper Palaeolithic (c.70,000–30,000 BP) · Zagros Mousterian → Baradostian
Lorestan cave 8 m deposits (70–30 ka, Mousterian→Baradostian, Neanderthal→UP) near Khorramabad.
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Susa
Neolithic to Medieval (c.4200 BCE–1218 CE; Elamite capital c.2700–646 BCE; Achaemenid palace 522–331 BCE) · Elamite / Persian Achaemenid / Seleucid / Parthian / Sassanian
Elamite capital then Achaemenid administrative capital (Darius I, 522 BCE), Susa preserves mound sequence from 4200 BCE: Apadana of Darius (36 limestone columns, glazed brick friezes of Immortals and…
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Tepe Ghabristan (Qabrestan)
Late Neolithic to Bronze Age (c.5000–2500 BCE; Plateau Chalcolithic type) · Tehran-Qazvin plateau Chalcolithic
Twin mound 330 × 250 m, 18 m high at Savajbolagh: type site of Qazvin Plain Chalcolithic where Fazeli & Coningham revealed Sialk I–II painted transition, first crude brick, kiln, and Zagros sealings…
🇮🇷 Iran · Archaeological wonder
Naqsh-e Rostam
Achaemenid to Sassanian (Tombs 522–404 BCE; Sassanian reliefs 224–651 CE) · Achaemenid Persian / Sassanian
Achaemenid royal necropolis: four cruciform tombs cut into Haji Abad cliff – Darius I (522–486 BCE), Xerxes I, Artaxerxes I, Darius II – with columned facades and relief of king before Ahuramazda and…
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Chogha Sefid
Neolithic (Bus Mordeh–Khazineh, c.7500–5800 BCE) · Deh Luran early Neolithic (Zagros)
Deh Luran tell 5 m high (c.7500–5800 BCE, Bus Mordeh–Khazineh, goat lentil) in Deh Luran plain.
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Konar Sandal South (Jiroft)
Early Dynastic III–Akkadian (c.2500–1900 BCE) · Halil (Jiroft) / Proto-Elamite late → Early Dynastic sphere
Monumental third-millennium citadel (13 ha, 21 m high mound with 300 m lower town) on the Halil River, excavated by Yous...
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Tol-e Nurabad
Neolithic to Sasanian (c.5000 BCE–600 CE) · Fars Chalcolithic → Elam → Persian
Mamasani multiperiod tell 8 m high (Neolithic–Sasanian 6k yr, Bakun–Banesh–Kaftari) west Fars.
🇮🇷 Iran · Hydraulic works
Qanat of Gonabad
Achaemenid to Sassanian (~700 BCE – 300 CE) · Persian (Achaemenid, Sassanian)
Possibly the oldest and deepest qanat in Iran, the Qasabeh Qanat of Gonabad extends 33 km with a mother-well 300 m deep — the deepest vertical shaft ever hand-dug.
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Tepe Ozbaki (Uzbaki)
Medes to Early Bronze (c.7000 BCE–Medes 7th c. BCE) · Medes–Achaemenid transition plus prehistoric Tappeh
Nine-period mound 15 km SSW of Qazvin with Halil Tepe–like sequence: Median mudbrick fortress + intact brick vault & rampart (oldest in Iran), Edriss Iron-Age citadel, Ozbaki Maad temple?
🇮🇷 Iran · Pyramid
Tepe Sialk — South Tappeh High Platform (Proto-Ziggurat)
Proto-Elamite / Early Bronze Age, c.3000–2600 BCE (Sialk III-IV) · Proto-Elamite
High platform (proto-ziggurat) on South Tappeh at Tepe Sialk (c.3000–2600 BCE, Proto-Elamite / Early Bronze Age).
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Geoy Tepe (Goy Tepe)
Hajji Firuz to Iron I (c.5000–900 BCE) · Hajji Firuz → Early Transcaucasian → Iron
Burton-Brown 1948 type-site near Rezaiyeh (Urmia) giving K-stage Geoy sequence: Gurney’s Parallels to Pisdeli ware: Hajji Firuz burnished, Geoy M painted orange-over-buff, and Hasanlu Grey ware…
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Tepe Hissar
Chalcolithic to Early Bronze (c.4300–1900 BCE) · Hissar I–IIIC
Damghan plain 40-ha complex with three mounds: Hissar IIIB–C painted/grey ware, lapis bead workshop, arsenical bronze workshop, “Burnt Building” massacre layer ~1900 BCE with 11 skeletons and Grey…
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Haftavan Tepe
Kura-Araxes to Iron III (c.3000–600 BCE) · Kura-Araxes → Urmia ware → Urartian
30-m high mound near Khoy: massive Kura-Araxes burnished black-burnished, Urmia orange painted ware, Mitanni green-glazed cylinder seals, Urartian pillar hall, Sasanian church.
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Sagzabad
Iron Age II–III (c.1200–550 BCE) · Iranian Iron (Persian pre-history)
Qazvin plain Iron Age type-site: four-period red-slipped citadel with storeroom jars red-burnished late Bronze to Iron I transition, “Sagzabad Ware”.
🇮🇷 Iran · Pyramid
Godin Tepe — Oval Compound High Mound
Early Bronze (III) to Iron III/Median, c.2600–500 BCE · Elamite / Median / Achaemenid
Oval Compound high mound at Godin Tepe (Period VI:1, c.500–330 BCE plus earlier Period III, c.2600 BCE high terrace). 120 × 80 m oval compound with bastions on natural mound 32 m high. T.
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Susa Acropolis
Ubaid to Islamic (c.4200 BCE–1300 CE; peak Elamite–Achaemenid) · Susa I–II → Elamite → Achaemenid → Parthian–Sasanian → Islamic
Elamite and Achaemenid acropolis (14 ha, 25 m high) at Susa, capital of Elam and Darius I winter capital. French excavat...
🇮🇷 Iran · Hydraulic works
Qanat of Zarch, Yazd
Achaemenid to present ~700 BCE–present · Persian (Median/Achaemenid onward)
71 km 2,115-shaft Zarch qanat - world's longest - still feeding Yazd after 3,000 years.
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Agrab Tepe
Urartian (8th–6th c. BCE; Argishti/Rusa) · Urartu
Small but classic Urartu hydraulic fortress damming a karstic spring valley NW of Khoy: cyclopean dam wall, rectangular fort, storage pithoi, Haldi-temple pebble mosaic, with red polish Urartu ware…
🇮🇷 Iran · Pyramid
Chogha Gavaneh — Central High Mound
Neolithic to Early Bronze Age, c.7000–800 BCE (massif c.3200 BCE) · Halaf / Ubaid / Uruk / Kura-Araxes
Central high mound at Chogha Gavaneh (7th–6th millennium BCE Neolithic to Bronze Age high platform, 15 m high, 80 m diameter).
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Tepe Sarab
Pre-Pottery Neolithic to Tepe Sarab ware (c.7000–5000 BCE) · Zagros Neolithic (Sarab culture)
Small but culturally seminal tell near Kermanshah at Sarab pass with Braidwood 1947 type-site red-painted Sarab ware, proto-domestic goat bones, and pisé hamlets preceding Jarmo and Hassuna…
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Bastam (Urartian Rusai-URU.TUR)
Urartian Late (c.685–590 BCE) · Urartian
Largest Urartian fortress (8 ha, 700 m enclosure wall, 3 km circuit) founded by Rusa II (c.685 BC) at Bastam near Qarah...