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The catalogue
9,978 places to sift through. Narrow by kind, country, period or how firmly each one is established — contested and pseudoarchaeological claims are labelled here, never hidden.
🇸🇾 Syria · Archaeological wonder
Lower to Upper Palaeolithic (250–12 ka; peaks Middle Palaeolithic 70–50 ka) · Yabrudian → Levantine Mousterian (Neanderthal) → Upper Palaeolithic modern human
Afrin karst cave with two Neanderthal infant burials demonstrating deliberate funerary ritual.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Late Postclassic East Coast (1200–1520 CE, occupied to contact) · Maya (East Coast – Ecab / Cuchbalam)
Postclassic coastal town (1200–1520 CE) directly in Cancún Hotel Zone at km 18 on barrier island between Nichupté Lagoon and Caribbean: ~40 platforms, colonnaded halls and Pyramid Structure 2 (9 m…
🇬🇷 Greece · Submerged site
Early Bronze Age to Classical (c. 3000 – 373 BCE) · Mycenaean / Achaean Greek
Classical Achaean capital submerged by 373 BCE earthquake-tsunami, rediscovered 2001 buried beneath coastal plain near Rizomylos.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Ancient city
Preclassic–Classic · Maya (Ixcun stela cult)
Dolores valley stela city (600 BCE–900 CE) near Guatemalan-Belize border with 8 photogenic carved stela altars including Stela 1 3.2 m tall — tallest Petén north stela with 9.16.0....
🇪🇬 Egypt · Pyramid
Old Kingdom, late Third Dynasty (c.2635–2600 BCE, unfinished) · Ancient Egyptian (Old Kingdom, 3rd Dynasty)
Lepsius I is the huge denuded square mound (215 × 215 m, ~20 m high) on the Abu Rawash plateau 7–8 km northwest of Giza, catalogued by Lepsius in 1842 as Pyramid No.I.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Hasmonean to Roman (2nd c. BCE–73 CE; Herodian peak) · Hasmonean Jewish → Herodian (Idumaean-Jewish client of Rome) → Sicarii → Roman legion → Byzantine monks
Herod's 440 m mesa fortress over Dead Sea — hanging palaces, desert cisterns and preserved Roman siege ramp.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Hellenistic to Byzantine (c.300 BCE–600 CE) · Seleucid priest-kings → Isaurian → Roman Cilician
Priest-kingdom Olba with colossal Zeus temple (five columns 11 m) and Diocaesarea colonnaded sacred way.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Pyramid
Old Kingdom, 3rd Dynasty (Huni horizon) · Ancient Egyptian
Southernmost of seven Huni provincial small step pyramids on Elephantine Island: 18.46 m base granite 3-step, 5 m high (originally ~11 m), cenotaph/marker c.2630 BCE.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Ancient village
Early Natufian to MPPNB (14,600–9000 BP) · Natufian → PPNA → PPNB (Levantine Badia)
Harra playa Natufian village that produced world's earliest bread (14,400 BP).
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Initial Period — Sechin (2000–1500 BCE), early Moxeke–Punkuri · Sechin / Moxeke–Punkuri / Cupisnique precursor
Known locally as Punguchuco (door/hat), adobe temple pyramid in Nepeña Valley tributary before Chavín, built by Sechin culture of Casma/Nepeña interaction sphere, contemporary with Sechin Alto and…
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient village
Pueblo II-III; Chacoan florescence then McElmo Mesa Verde · Chacoan Ancestral Puebloans (Homools? Pueblo I-III) → McElmo Mesa Verde
Chaco’s second city (400 rooms, D-shaped, 1010–1110 CE) with colonnade and great kiva — McElmo-renovated great house, 3 storeys high on north Chaco mesa.
🇻🇳 Vietnam · Ancient city
Óc Eo 100 BCE–300 CE → Funan 200–600 CE → Chenla 600–800 CE → Khmer influence 800–1200 · Óc Eo–Funan (pre–Angkorian Mekong hydraulic with Indianization)
Mekong Delta Óc Eo–Funan secondary city (100 BCE–600 CE) at Go Thap Tháp Mười — 400 ha with Vishnu Garuda and 20 km canal to Oc Eo.
🇪🇹 Ethiopia · Ancient city
Early Islamic to Medieval (600–1500 CE) · Harla / Islamic-Ethiopian (Cushitic-Arabian)
Harlaa (Ganda Biyo) is a medieval Islamic city-state (6th–15th c CE) on the southern Afar escarpment 15 km SE of Dire Dawa, excavated 2017– by Exeter & Ethiopian Authority.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Initial Period, c.1800-1000 BCE (Preceramic U-temple) · Andean (Initial Period, Rímac–Chillón tradition)
Huaca La Florida in Collique hills north Lima: U-shaped pyramidal temple 350 m long, 40 m deep platform, 15 m high, with central court and lateral wings forming U open to east.
🇿🇲 Zambia · Rock art
Later Stone Age to Iron Age (2000 BCE–1500 CE) · Batwa / Bantu
700 Later Stone Age paintings at Mwela Rocks near Kasama — Kasama–Isoka bush gallery.
🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan · Ancient city
Sogdian 6th–12th c → Kara-Khanid 10th–12th · Sogdian oasis — Chuy Valley Silk Road Sogdian–Turk
Navekat Krasnaya Rechka City — Sogdian Silk Road city (6th–12th c CE) at Krasnaya Rechka on Chu Valley road west of Ak-Beshim, excavated 1980s by VE Nasyrov and Koen–Goryacheva.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Third Intermediate to Late (21st Dyn 1070 BCE – 7th c. BCE; reoccupied Ptolemaic/Roman) · Egyptian (Libyan dynasties) reusing New Kingdom monumental
21st Dynasty Tanis built from stolen Ramesside blocks – intact silver-coffined royal tombs under Delta silt.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Old Babylonian (Isin-Larsa) 1950–1750 BCE · Babylonian (Isin-Larsa)
Old Babylonian fortified administrative town (c.1900–1750 BCE, Isin-Larsa to Hammurabi era) now Tell Harmal on Baghdad's eastern edge, dominated by central 25x25 m raised temple platform (ziggurat…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Late Woodland – early Mississippian, Plum Bayou 650–1050 CE · Plum Bayou (aboriginal ancestors of Quapaw? Coles Creek related, not Caddo Mississippian)
Best-preserved Plum Bayou-culture platform-mound center (650–1050 CE) – 18 mounds (two tallest 15 m and 12 m) arranged geometrically around rectangular plazas and an earthwork embankment with…
🇧🇿 Belize · Ancient city
Preclassic 1000 BCE–1000 CE (El Castillo apogee 600–890 CE; top frieze 770–830) · Maya (Mopan Valley, rival of Naranjo and Buenavista del Cayo)
Hilltop Classic Maya center with spectacular El Castillo (40 m high pyramid with east stucco frieze 7.5 m long of 30 human figures, sun gods and jaguars) visible 8 km on Mopan River valley ridge;…
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Ancient city
Early Classic–Postclassic (Mam–K'iche') · Maya (Mam) with K'iche' overlay
Fortified hilltop white-plastered city on Selegua River terrace near Huehuetenango (400–1525 CE), with 43 structures: Pyramid Pyramid 7 ballcourt-pyramid 12 m, palace, and 1,000-m...
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Late Classic 580–800 CE (mural phase 790–800 CE) · Maya (Usumacinta Basin, dependent of Yaxchilán under Shield Jaguar III)
Small Usumacinta tributary Maya center (~1.5 km²) world-famous for Temple of the Murals (Structure 1): three vaulted rooms with 110 m² of brilliantly preserved frescoes (c.790 CE ‘1000-year pigments’…
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient village
Late Neolithic–Late Chalcolithic (5900–4000 BCE; wine horizon 5400 BCE) · Hajji Firuz / Dalma (Urmia basin Chalcolithic)
Solduz Valley Chalcolithic village with world's earliest wine jars (5400 BCE tartaric acid).
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Naqada II–III to Early Dynastic (Predynastic to 1st Dynasty) · Upper Egyptian Naqada (protodynastic)
Protodynastic super-city (c.3800–3000 BCE) — largest Predynastic centre in Egypt (100+ ha at HK desert + floodplain), cult of falcon Horus.
