🇦🇲 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.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Tell
Ataruz
Iron Age (c.1200–700 BCE; Moabite 900–700, destruction c.700) · Moabite → Israelite (Gad?) → Assyrian destruction
Khirbat Ataruz is likely biblical Ataroth (Numbers 32, Mesha Stele) — massive moat, double wall and Iron complex: gate, cultic building with horned altar, bull...
🇿🇦 South Africa · Rock art
Cederberg Stadsaal Caves Rock Art
Late Stone Age 10,000 BCE–19th c. CE · San (Khoisan)
Cederberg Stadsaal – Cape Fold Mountains sandstone domes and caves with Late Stone Age San rock art in Stadsaal Caves (Elephant Processional panel, 500–1600 CE), Sevilla Trail 130-site route.
🇵🇪 Peru · Hydraulic works
Moche Canal System and Puquios
Moche 100–800 CE; Wari continuation · Moche (La Libertad)
Moche Canal System – north coast Peru Moche Valley hydraulic (100–800 CE): 30 km intervalley canals (La Cumbre, Ascope) diverting Moche River to arid Chicama, puquios spiral-wells tapping aquifer…
🇬🇹 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…
🇮🇳 India · Hydraulic works
Hampi Aqueducts and Stepped Tanks
Vijayanagara 14th–16th c. · Vijayanagara Hindu
Hampi hydraulic – Vijayanagara capital's Tungabhadra canal system: 15 km Raya canal, aqueduct on pillars crossing 2-tier, Pushkarini stepped tanks (6.8m deep chlorite schist, geometric black basalt…
🇺🇸 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.
🇮🇹 Italy · Temple complex
Paestum Temples of Poseidon
Archaeic-Classical Greek 600–450 BCE · Greek (Achaean colonists) then Lucanian and Roman
Mainland Italy's three perfect Greek Doric temples, era 550–460 BCE.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Megalith
Cairnbaan Cup and Ring Marks
Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age · Kilmartin Late Neolithic
Cup-and-ring schist panels above Kilmartin Glen with >100 carvings, c.3000 BCE.
🇨🇳 China · Temple complex
Longmen Grottoes
Northern Wei to Tang 493–907 CE (peak Northern Wei 493–534, Tang 618–907) · Chinese Buddhist (Wei-Tang)
1-km limestone gorge with 1345 caves and niches, 2,345 caves total? Actually 1,345 caves, 43 pagodas and 100,000+ Buddhist images (largest Vairocana 17.14 m) carved 493–907 CE from Northern Wei…
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Maijishan Grottoes
Sixteen Kingdoms to Tang ~384–907 CE · Chinese Buddhist Northern Dynasties
Stacked-cliff wheat-plant-shaped grotto city with 7,200 sculptures on bolted plank galleries.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Tianlongshan Cave 8 — Manshan Pavilion Buddha Sanctuary
Eastern Wei to Tang (534 – 750 CE) · Buddhist Northern dynasties under Gao Qi and Tang
Cave 8 Manshan Buddha 3.6 m of Northern Qi–Tang on western slope.
🇮🇳 India · Rock art
Edakkal Hill Petroglyph Caves Wayanad
Neolithic to Iron Age (6000–1000 BCE) · South Indian Neolithic-Iron Age
Edakkal Cleft – natural rock fissure 96×22 ft at 1,200m on Edakkal Hill (Ambukuthi mala) with dense pecked petroglyphs: human stick, dog, wheel, bow, star, script-like symbols and 5,000+ figures.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Mogao Northern Caves — Dunhuang Oasis North Cliff Monastic Cells
Sixteen Kingdoms to Yuan (366 – 1368 CE) northern cells 960–1300 · Buddhist monastic Dunhuang oasis international
North cliff austere monastic cells 1000–1300 CE opposite southern painted scripture halls.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Tell Leilan (Shubat-Enlil)
Early Bronze to Old Assyrian · Akkadian → Amorite Assyrian
Akkadian provincial capital turned Assyrian royal city Shubat-Enlil (Shamshi-Adad I c.1813–1791 BCE), with 90 ha walled city, Akkadian palace on Acropolis, and the Weiss 4.2ka climate event…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Rock art
Wadi Hammamat Petroglyphs Eastern Desert
Predynastic to Islamic (4000 BCE–1000 CE) · Predynastic Egyptian and later quarrying expeditions
Wadi Hammamat – Eastern Desert wadi between Nile and Red Sea dense with 5,000+ petroglyphs (Predynastic hunters, 4000 BCE ostrich boats, Pharaonic quarrying inscriptions Old Kingdom–Roman).
🇿🇼 Zimbabwe · Rock art
Matobo Hills Pomongwe Cave Rock Art
Stone Age 13,000 BCE–19th c. CE · San and Iron Age farmers
Matobo Hills Pomongwe (Pondongwe) Cave – granite kopje landscape with 3,000+ rock art sites; Pomongwe frieze of kudu, giraffe and white bovid panels; Bambata Cave MSA 125 ka deposits.
🇬🇷 Greece · Temple complex
Ancient Agora of Athens
Archaic to Roman 600 BCE–267 CE, Classical peak 5th c. BCE · Athenian Greek
Democratic square of Athens with intact Hephaisteion, Stoa of Attalos and Socratic stoa.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Naachtun — Pyramid La Perdida (Structure XII)
Maya Preclassic to Late Classic, c.150 BCE–900 CE · Maya (Mirador Basin)
Pyramid La Perdida (Lost Pyramid, Structure XII) at Naachtun (c.150 BCE–900 CE, massive 130-ha city between Tikal and Mirador).
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Bingling (Binglingsi) Grottoes
Sixteen Kingdoms to Ming ~420–1644 CE · Northwestern Chinese Buddhist (Western Qin to Tibetan)
Yellow River cliff grotto accessible only by boat, bearing China's earliest dated 420 CE inscription.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Kiuic
Late Classic Puuc 600–900 CE peak (with Middle Preclassic origins) · Maya (Puuc)
Major Puuc city in protected 1,800 ha reserve: Palace 38 m long with Puuc mosaic colonnade, Yaxché Group 60 m-tall conical karst hill with EAC twin concentrations, and chultunes.