🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Newark Earthworks
Hopewell culture 100 BCE–500 CE · Hopewell (Adena descended, Algonquian? cohort)
Hopewell giant geometric enclosures marking 18.6-yr lunar cycle.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Uruk Anu Ziggurat — Warka
Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age, Uruk period (4000–3000 BCE) · Sumerian (Ubaid–Uruk–Jemdet Nasr)
The Anu Ziggurat at Uruk-Warka is the oldest known true ziggurat (≈4000 BCE), a massive mudbrick terrace 21 m high in the Anu district. The famed White Temple (c.3500–3000 BCE) sat on summit.
🇸🇩 Sudan · Pyramid
White-Ham Pyramid
Byzantine (330–1453 CE) · Byzantine
White-Ham Pyramid in River Nile State, Sudan is a Byzantine (330–1453 CE) pyramid attributed to Byzantine culture.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Temple complex
Temple of Kukulkan at Chichen Itza
Late Classic to Postclassic Maya (9th–12th c. CE; Toltec-Maya fusion) · Maya (Itza) with Toltec influence
El Castillo (c.900–1100 CE) – 24m nine-step pyramid with 91 steps per stair plus top platform (365), dedicated to Kukulkan feathered serpent.
🇳🇦 Namibia · Rock art
Twyfelfontein Rock Engravings
Late Stone Age to early pastoral (6000 BCE – 1000 CE) · San hunter-gatherer (Ju/'hoansi ancestors)
Namibia's sole UNESCO World Heritage site besides Brandberg, Twyfelfontein holds over 2,500 engravings pecked into a 600-m sandstone outcrop of Etjo formation.
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient village
Wijiji (Chaco Canyon)
Pueblo III; late McElmo revival · Mesa Verde McElmo → Chaco East Wash
Late McElmo eastern great house (30 rooms, 1105–1115 CE) at Chaco Wash narrows — single-wing McElmo revival after main canyon collapse, with check dams.
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia · Ancient city
Hegra
Lihyan to Nabataean to Roman Arabia Petraea · Nabataean Arab
Second capital of Nabataean kingdom after Petra (1st c. BCE–106 CE), with 131 rock-cut monumental tombs with decorated façades (Qasr al-Farid loner tomb iconic), Nabataean Aramaic inscriptions…
🇫🇷 France · Temple complex
Taputapuātea Marae Complex
Early Marae 1000–1500 CE classical Polynesian (peak 1350–1773) · Polynesian / Ra'iātean (Ma'ohi)
Polynesia's most sacred marae center (1000–1773 CE) on 31 ha lagoon peninsula tip Taputapuatea, with 60×45 m marae Taputapuatea (stone national marae) and 16 other marae including Hauviri and Opoa,…
🇯🇴 Jordan · Hydraulic works
Ceys Channel — Jerash (Gerasa) Hadrianic Water Conduit
Roman Hadrianic (129 – 130 CE) with Byzantine reuse · Roman Gerasene Gerasa Decapolis under Hadrian
9 km Hadrianic Ceys Channel 130 CE to Gerasa reservoir above Cardo at 610 m.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Mati Si Thousand Buddha Cliff — Sunan Horse Hoof North Grottoes
Sixteen Kingdoms to Yuan (397 – 1368 CE) · North Asian Buddhist with Tibetan Yugur later
Thousand Buddha northern cliff with 30 caves and horse-hoof imprint 397–1368 CE.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Tikal Temple V
Early Late Classic c. 650–700 CE · Maya (Tikal)
Second tallest Tikal pyramid 57 m high south complex behind Palace: oldest of major Tikal temples (c. 650–700), with two talud-tablero influenced early masks and massive sheer limestone platform.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Tikal Temple II (Temple of the Masks)
Late Classic Maya c. 700 CE (c. 734 dedication?) · Maya (Tikal)
Western twin of Temple I: 38 m high pyramid with temple summit south of Great Plaza (facing east toward Temple I), built for wife of Jasaw Chan K'awiil I (Lady 12 Macaw).
🇨🇳 China · Archaeological wonder
Badaling Great Wall
Ming Dynasty 1505 (Jiajing) rebuild over Northern Qi core · Ming Han Chinese
Best-preserved Ming Great Wall pass (1505) at 1,015 m Juyongguan defile north of Beijing, 7.8 m high crenellated brick-stone ramparts with 19 watchtowers, widened for five horses abreast and beacon…
🇺🇸 United States · Temple complex
Pueblo Bonito - Chaco Canyon Great House
Chacoan Phenomenon 828–1126 CE · Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) Chaco
Pueblo Bonito – Chaco's 800-room D-shaped great house (828–1126 CE), 4 stories, 650 rooms, theatral central plaza and 32 kivas, aligned to cardinal directions and Chaco meridian.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Didyma Eastern Temenos — Apollo Temple Sacred Precinct
Archaic to Roman (600 BCE – 250 CE) · Milesian Greek to Hellenistic Seleucid to Roman
Eastern hypaethral adyton with sacred spring and stadium of Branchidae oracle.
🇱🇰 Sri Lanka · Ancient city
Sacred City of Anuradhapura
Anuradhapura Period 377 BCE–1017 CE (peak 1st–10th c CE) · Sinhalese Theravada Buddhist (Anuradhapura Kingdom)
Sinhalese capital for 1,400 years (377 BCE–1017 CE) and great Theravada monastic center with three 4th–2nd c BCE brick dagabas among tallest premodern structures: Jetavanaramaya (originally 122 m,…
🇾🇪 Yemen · Hydraulic works
South Sluice Hydraulic Extension - Marib Oasis
Sabaean c.750 BCE–575 CE; sluice extension · Sabaean (South Arabian)
Marib South Sluice (Masaq) – Sabaean Great Dam's mass southern sluice/spillway assembly (14m high, 600m dam length, 30,000 ha irrigation).
🇲🇳 Mongolia · Rock art
Tsagaan Salaa — Baga Oigor South Valley Panels
Neolithic to Turkic (6000 BCE – 900 CE) · North Asian hunter-gatherer to Bronze Age nomad to Turkic
South tributary with deer stones and Neolithic birthing scene across 15 km.
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan · Ancient city
State Historical Park Ancient Merv
Achaemenid 6th c BCE to Timurid 18th c CE (Seljuk peak 11th–13th c) · Parthian / Seljuk / Timurid (Persian-Central Asian)
Four superimposed cities of Merv oasis on Murghab alluvium: Erk Kala Achaemenid citadel, Gyaur Kala Hellenistic-Parthian double-walled (Antiochia Margiana), Sultan Kala Seljuk capital (world's…
🇰🇭 Cambodia · Temple complex
Temple of Preah Vihear
Khmer Empire 893–1150 CE (peak 11th–12th c) · Khmer Hindu (Shaiva)
Dangrek escarpment Shiva temple (9th–12th c) aligned 800 m north-south axial causeway stairway rising 525 m, built by six kings (Yasovarman I to Suryavarman II).
🇸🇩 Sudan · Ancient city
Island of Meroe — Archaeological Sites
Kushite Meroitic (300 BCE–350 CE) · Kushite Meroitic (Egyptianizing Nubian)
Island of Meroe is the UNESCO 1332 heartland between Nile–Atbara–Blue Nile (not true island) with 3 Kushite sacred complexes: City of Meroe (pyramids North/South cemeteries, Amun Temple), Musawwarat…
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Megalith
Windmill Hill Causewayed Enclosure
Early Neolithic · Windmill Hill / Hembury Ware
Type-site causewayed enclosure 2 km from Avebury — three interrupted ditch circuits enclosing 8.5 ha.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Ziggurat of Eridu (Tell Abu Shahrain)
Ubaid to Ur III (5400–2112 BCE; ziggurat Ur III 2112–2000 BCE) · Sumerian (Eridu, Ubaid → Uruk → Ur III)
Tell at supposed first Sumerian city Eridu, sacred to water god Enki/Ea (Abzu). Eighteen superimposed mudbrick temples (Ubaid 5400–3800 BCE) culminating in Ur III ziggurat (~250 × 300 m enclosure, 3…
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Tikal Temple III (Temple of the Jaguar Priest)
Late Classic Terminal Classic transition c. 810–820 CE · Maya (Tikal late)
55 m high pyramid west of Tozzer Causeway, last great temple built at Tikal for Dark Sun / Chitam late 8th c: thickest roof comb remaining, steep 55° stair and jaguar-pelt sculpture of priest at…