🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
El Mirador — South Group Second Site
Late Preclassic Mirador 300 BCE–150 CE · Maya (Preclassic Mirador Basin)
Southern satellite of Preclassic supersite: 18 m triadic pyramid and 1.8 m Ajaw stucco mask cache with causeway.
🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan · Rock art
Saimaluu Tash Petroglyphs
Bronze Age to Turkic (~2000 BCE – 800 CE) · Andronovo, Saka, Turkic nomadic
Elevated 3,200-m boulder field on the Ferghana ridge preserving perhaps 107,000 images on 10,000 varnished basalt boulders, making it among the most numerous rock-art locales on earth.
🇲🇦 Morocco · Ancient city
Volubilis
Mauretanian to Early Islamic (3rd c BCE Berber settlement; Roman 25 BCE–285 CE; Idrisid 788 CE) · Mauretanian / Roman / Berber / Early Islamic (Idrisid)
Roman Mauretania Tingitana capital with 42 ha walled city, Volubilis preserves 2nd–3rd c town: Decumanus Maximus 400 m, Forum, Capitol, Basilica, Arch of Caracalla (217 CE erected for Caracalla and…
🇦🇺 Australia · Archaeological wonder
Budj Bim Cultural Landscape
Gunditjmara continuous 6,600–6,000 BCE to present (dated 6,700 BP Muldoon trap) · Gunditjmara Aboriginal Australian
Gunditjmara aquaculture over 6,600 years on Budj Bim basalt lava flow (30,000-year-old volcano) with 750 m of stone channels, weirs and eel traps (kooyang) manipulating Lake Condah wetlands.
🇮🇷 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…
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Archaeological wonder
Berel Kurgans
Scythian Pazyryk phase (~400–250 BCE) · Saka/Pazyryk (East Kazakh nomadic)
Seventy burial mounds in the Bukhtarma valley of the Altai where Canadian–Kazakh teams uncovered horse sacrifices wearing antlered ibex-horn masks transforming them into griffins.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Vichama — Templo Mayor Pyramid
Late Preceramic Norte Chico, c.3800–2800 BCE (peak 1800 BCE) · Norte Chico (Vichama)
Templo Mayor at Vichama (c.3800–3300 BCE with major Late Preceramic build c.2800 BCE, Norte Chico), 50 × 70 m base, 16 m high terraced pyramid with summit plazas and elaborate stucco reliefs of…
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia · Archaeological wonder
Dadan – Kingdom of Lihyan at AlUla
Iron Age to Classical (800 BCE – 100 CE) · Dedanite / Lihyanite (North Arabian)
Twin tells of Umm Daraj and Al-Khuraiba flanking the AlUla oasis, whose cliffs hide the rock-cut Lion Tombs – two unfinished effigies of couchant lions only 4 m long, unique in Arabia.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Qatna
Early Bronze to Late Bronze (Amorite Hurrian) · Amorite then Hurrian-Mitanni Egyptian orbit
Mighty Middle Bronze (c.2800–1340 BCE) kingdom city of Qatna controlling eastern Homs basin, with 1 km-square royal palace (largest Bronze Age palace in Syria, 10,000 m²) and intact royal hypogeum…
🇯🇵 Japan · Ancient village
Sannai-Maruyama Site
Middle to Late Jomon 3900–2300 BCE (peak Early-Middle) · Jomon (northern Honshu hunter-gatherer)
Largest Jomon hunter-gatherer settlement (3900–2300 BCE) with 40 ha including six-pillar 15 m building (reconstructed), 500+ pit dwellings, longhouses, burial pits with red ochre, and jade exchange…
🇦🇺 Australia · Archaeological wonder
Lake Mungo National Park (Willandra Lakes)
Willandra 50,000–10,000 BCE occupation (Mungo Man 40,000 BP OSL roughly 1999/2003) · Paakantyi / Ngyiampaa / Mutthi Mutthi ancestors; Paakantyi contemporary traditional owners
Dry lake lunette crescent 30 km "Walls of China" with 40,000-year occupation revealing Mungo Man (1969, oldest cremation ~40,000 BP with ochred burial) and Mungo Lady (1968 cremation recalcined).
🇮🇷 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.
🇵🇪 Peru · Hydraulic works
Andenes of the Colca Canyon
Middle Horizon to Inca ~800–1532 CE · Collagua and Cabana then Inca
Collagua 1,000 km of canyon-edge andenería integrating amunas and qochas still irrigated.
🇦🇺 Australia · Earthwork
Brewarrina Aboriginal Fish Traps (Baiame's Ngunnhu)
Aboriginal estimated 40,000 BP to historical (continuous); documented >3,000 years · Ngemba / Murrawarri / Ualkay Aboriginal
Estimated 40,000-year-old stone weir complex on Barwon River comprising four traps across 500 m with crescent stone walls 2.5 m high guiding fish into pens, attributed to ancestral creation being…
🇦🇹 Austria · Hillfort
Gars–Thunau Hillfort
Urnfield to Medieval, peak 9th–10th century (Great Moravian fringe) · Great Moravian / Bavarian–Carolingian borderland
Large fortified hilltop at Thunau am Kamp (Gars) 25 km north of Danube (80 km NW Vienna), with 33 ha plateau, multiple ramparts ( Iron Age core revived late 9th c as 4 ha Slavic fort), associated…
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Sanchi Stupa Complex
Maurya to Gupta, 3rd c. BCE–5th c. CE, Great Stupa Ashoka 260 BCE expanded 2nd c. BCE · Buddhist (Maurya, Shunga, Satavahana, Gupta)
Ashokan hemispherical stupa with four sculpted torana gateways - genesis of Buddhist architecture.
🇲🇦 Morocco · Ancient city
Tamuda (Tetouan)
Mauretanian to Late Roman (2nd c BCE–5th c CE; peak 1st–3rd c CE) · Mauri / Phoenician / Roman
Moorish–Roman Tamuda at Tetouan with Punic fort and garum factories destroyed AD 40.
🇮🇹 Italy · Temple complex
Segesta
Classical 430–420 BCE temple, theater 3rd c. BCE Hellenistic · Elymian (Trojan-origin indigenous beholden to Greek culture)
Unfinished 5th c. Doric temple and mountaintop theater of Trojan-descended Elymians.
🇦🇲 Armenia · Rock art
Areni-1 Bird Cave South — Aghavnadzor Secondary Chamber
Chalcolithic to Medieval (4000 BCE – 1400 CE) · Kura-Araxes to medieval Armenian
South annex with Chalcolithic finger flutings and secondary grape press pit.
🇨🇱 Chile · Geoglyph
Atacama Giant
Late Intermediate 900–1450 CE · Atacameño / Pica-Tarapacá culture influenced by Tiwanaku
World's largest anthropomorphic geoglyph: 119-m hill figure marking caravan trails.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Ancient city
Yaxnohcah
Middle Preclassic to Late Classic 1000 BCE–950 CE, Mirador Basin fluorescence · Maya (Mirador Basin Preclassic)
Huge Preclassic center on basin SE ridge 15 km N of Calakmul: massive E-Group (355 m platform) aligning equinox sunrise, Triadic Structure A 30 m pyramid, and Late Classic intrusive occupation after…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Moundville Archaeological Park
Mississippian 1000–1450 CE, apogee 1200–1350 CE · Mississippian (ancestral Choctaw/Chickasaw)
29-mound plaza center with grand chief's platform mound above Black Warrior River.
🇮🇷 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.
🇲🇳 Mongolia · Megalith
Deer Stones of the Mongolian Plateau
Late Bronze Age (~1400–700 BCE) · Karakhush / Deer Stone–Khirigsuur culture (Bronze-Age pastoralist)
Over 1,200 granite stelae across Mongolia present stylized reindeer in airborne gallop covering the stone from antler to hoof, interspersed with suns, daggers and human face-belts marking the waist.