🇪🇸 Spain · Rock art
Siega Verde Rock Art
Gravettian to Magdalenian ~20–11 ka BP · Upper Paleolithic Iberian
2 km open-air schist engravings paired with Côa Valley, 443 Paleolithic pecked figures.
🇱🇾 Libya · Rock art
Tadrart Acacus Rock Art
Early Holocene to Garamantian (~12,000 BCE – 100 CE) · Saharan hunter-gatherer to Pastoral Neolithic (Kel Essuf, Round Head, Pastoral)
150-km sandstone plateau on the Algerian border preserves thousands of paintings and engravings in styles paralleling nearby Tassili n'Ajjer: giant Kel Essuf headless figures, Round Head masked…
🇨🇳 China · Archaeological wonder
Erlitou – Xia Capital
Early Bronze Age (~1900–1500 BCE; Xia to early Shang) · Erlitou ( Xia, early Bronze Age Chinese)
300-ha rammed-earth palace enclosure on the Luo River where 11,000 m² Palace No.1 and a bronze foundry document the transition from Longshan Neolithic to bronze kingship.
🇪🇸 Spain · Megalith
Tholos de Montelirio
Chalcolithic · Valencina Copper Age / Los Millares horizon
Seville Chalcolithic tholos with 40 m corridor and sun-motif slabs, part of 400 ha Valencina copper town.
🇫🇷 France · Rock art
Cussac Cave
Gravettian ~28–25 ka BP · Gravettian
Sealed 1.6 km Gravettian engraved gallery with 4 m bison and bear nests intact since 25 ka.
🇪🇸 Spain · Rock art
El Castillo Cave
Mousterian to Magdalenian ~150–11 ka BP · Neanderthal then Aurignacian to Magdalenian
Monte Castillo reference sequence cave with 40 ka red disks and 150 kyr stratigraphy.
🇨🇳 China · Rock art
Helan Mountains Rock Art
Neolithic to Xixia (~4000 BCE – 1200 CE) · North Chinese pastoral–agricultural; Xiongnu, Xianbei, Tangut
20-km sandstone rift on the Helan fault scarp preserving over 10,000 petroglyphs from 6 major phases: masked faces 4 ka, northern hunter reindeer, Zhou chariots, Xiongnu horse archers and Tangut…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Pyramid
Pyramid of Neferefre (Raneferef)
Old Kingdom, 5th Dynasty · Ancient Egyptian
Unfinished pyramid of ephemeral 5th Dynasty king Neferefre (Raneferef) at Abusir: square base 65 m, only first step completed to ~7 m (planned 52 m).
🇹🇯 Tajikistan · Ancient city
Proto-urban Site of Sarazm
Afanasievo to Sarazm Chalcolithic–Bronze Age · Sarazm culture (Central Asian proto-Bactrian)
Earliest proto-urban centre in Central Asia (4000–2000 BCE) in Zarafshan Valley, Tajikistan's first UNESCO site (2010), 100 ha town with irrigation canals, palace, fortified citadel and aeolian…
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Atzompa — Oaxaca
Classic Xoo 650–900 CE · Zapotec (Xoo/Mahuitz phase)
Monte Albán northern barrio: 45 m ballcourt largest in Oaxaca and House of the Altars on 250 m plaza.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Bakla Tepe
EBA (c.3000-2000 BCE) · Western Anatolian EBA (Troy I-II, Yortan sphere)
Bakla Tepe — buried eba tell/village at İzmir Province.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient village
Kfar HaHoresh
Middle PPNB · PPNB cult complex
PPNB cult and mortuary center (7500–6650 BCE) in the Nazareth hills, not a normal village but a regional feasting and secondary-burial site serving surrounding settlements.
🇲🇦 Morocco · Ancient city
Gilda / Rirha
Mauretanian to Islamic (5th c. BCE–8th c. CE; Roman peak 1st–4th c. CE) · Mauretanian / Roman
Rirha (ancient Gilda) on the Sebou River is a Mauretanian city turned Roman colonia, 5th c. BCE–8th c. CE, excavated by Callegarin 2005–.
🇬🇷 Greece · Temple complex
Sanctuary of the Great Gods, Samothrace
Archaic to Roman 7th c. BCE–300 CE · Thracian-Greek mystery cult (pan-Hellenic pilgrimage)
Mystery sanctuary on Samothrace where Winged Victory crowned a sacred torrent ravine.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Acharneh
Early Bronze Age to Hellenistic (c.3000–300 BCE) · Syrian EBA → Aramaean → Neo-Hittite fringe
Ghāb Orontes fortress tell 12 ha (EB glacis, Iron Age Aramaean town Tunip/Qarqar) in Ghāb swamp.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Cave
Girmeler Cave
Epipalaeolithic to Early Chalcolithic (c.14,000–5500 BCE) · Anatolian Epipalaeolithic → Aceramic Neolithic → Chalcolithic
Lycian karst cave (14 ka) with Epipalaeolithic burials to Aceramic Neolithic herding above Fethiye.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Ancient city
Jerash (Gerasa)
Hellenistic to Early Islamic (c.332 BCE–749 CE, peak 1st–3rd c CE) · Graeco-Roman / Nabataean / Byzantine / Umayyad
One of the best-preserved Greco-Roman cities in the Near East, Gerasa was a Decapolis city with colonnaded cardo, two tetrapylons, Hadrian's Arch (129 CE), Oval Plaza, Temple of Artemis and Temple of…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Labranda Sanctuary of Zeus Labraundos
Hecatomnid Classical 380–330 BCE · Carian (Hecatomnid satrapal) Greek-Anatolian hybrid
Carian mountain Zeus sanctuary of Mausolus with double-axe cult and 14 km sacred road.
🇰🇭 Cambodia · Temple complex
Sambor Prei Kuk Archaeological Site
Chenla pre-Angkor 600–800 CE; occupation to 15th c. · Shaiva Hindu and Mahayana
Chenla capital Isanapura (7th c., King Isanavarman I c.616–635) on Stung Sen floodplain, earliest Buddhist-Hindu temple-city before Angkor: 291 temples in three walled enclosures (Prasat Sambor, Yeay…
🇨🇭 Switzerland · Ancient city
Augusta Raurica Roman Colony
Roman (44 BCE–400 CE) · Roman (Colonia Augusta Rauracorum)
Best-preserved Roman colonial city on the Rhine, founded 44 BCE and monumentalized under Augustus.
🇦🇿 Azerbaijan · Rock art
Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape
Upper Paleolithic to Middle Ages (~14,000 BCE – 1300 CE) · Caspian hunter-gatherer to nomadic pastoralist
Semi-desert limestone plateau on the Caspian littoral with over 6,000 engravings distributed across Boyukdash, Kichikdash and Jingirdag mesas.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Kashkashok III
Ubaid–Uruk (5200–3100 BCE) · Ubaid – Uruk
Ubaid–Uruk (5200–3100 BCE) Ubaid – Uruk tell at Al-Hasakah Governorate, Khabur tributary – ubaid–uruk village on khabur tributary (dims Mound 2 ha, 6 m Ubaid–Uruk).
🇱🇧 Lebanon · Ancient city
Tyre
Bronze Age to Ottoman (c.2750 BCE–present; Phoenician peak 1100–332 BCE) · Phoenician / Persian / Hellenistic / Roman / Byzantine / Crusader
Phoenician island-city and legendary birthplace of Europa and Dido, Tyre dominated Mediterranean purple-dye trade.
🇬🇷 Greece · Temple complex
Oracle of Dodona
Mycenaean to Roman ~1400 BCE–391 CE · Epirote Greek (Molossoi then Aetolian)
Oak-and-bronze oracle of Zeus — oldest in Greece — with vast theater and lot-tablet archive.