🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves
Gaochang to Yuan 500–1300 CE · Uyghur Buddhist (ancient Uyghur–Tocharian)
Turpan depression Uyghur Buddhist cliff with 77 donor-portrait caves below sea level.
🇦🇺 Australia · Rock art
Ubirr Rock Art
Late Pleistocene to present (~4000 BCE – contemporary) · Bininj/Mungguy (Aboriginal Australian)
Five main sandstone galleries on the Nadab floodplain edge of the Arnhem escarpment display the classic X-ray style: translucent kangaroo, emu, long-necked turtles and thylacine (Tasmanian tiger)…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Pyramid
Pyramid of Queen Iput II (Pepi II Complex, South Saqqara)
Old Kingdom, late 6th Dynasty · Ancient Egyptian
Middle queen pyramid of Pepi II at South Saqqara, dedicated to Iput II (possibly daughter of Pepi I).
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Gezer
Early Bronze to Iron Age · Canaanite → Egyptian → Israelite
Hilltop Canaanite tel (c.3500–586 BCE) with the Gezer Calendar (10th c. BCE, earliest Hebrew inscription — agricultural almanac) and bronze-age standing-stone alignment: 10 monolithic massebot (up to…
🇬🇷 Greece · Temple complex
Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae
Classical 429–400 BCE · Ancient Greek Arcadian (Phigalian)
Iktinos' mountain Apollo temple mixing all three orders with earliest Corinthian capital.
🇬🇲 Gambia · Megalith
Stone Circles of Senegambia — Wassu Complex
Late Iron Age to Medieval (750–1000 CE peak) · Serer–Wolof proto-Jola / Senegambian megalithic
Wassu is the Gambian component of UNESCO Senegambian Stone Circles (1226, 2006) — 11 megalithic circles (4.5–6 m Ø) with 1–2 m laterite pillars (cylindrical, dressed with iron wedge) enclosing burial…
🇺🇸 United States · Archaeological wonder
Fajada Butte
Pueblo II–III Bonito 1000–1150 CE · Ancestral Pueblo (Chacoan)
Chacoan Sun Dagger butte: three slabs create dagger beam on spirals marking solstices and lunar standstill.
🇯🇵 Japan · Megalith
Oyu Stone Circles
Late Jomon 2000–1500 BCE · Jomon Late
Twin Late Jomon double-stone circles (2000–1500 BCE) — Manza (46 m dia) and Nonakado (42 m dia) placed either side of prefectural road at Oyu, Kazuno, each concentric with sundial-like 2.1 m central…
🇰🇷 South Korea · Pyramid
Step Pyramid of Bala
Middle Bronze Age (2100–1550 BCE) · Middle Bronze Age
Step Pyramid of Bala in Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea is a Middle Bronze Age (2100–1550 BCE) pyramid attributed to Middle Bronze Age culture.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Temple complex
Karnak Temple Complex
Middle Kingdom to Ptolemaic (c.2000 BCE–100 CE; major phase New Kingdom 1550–1070 BCE) · Egyptian Pharaonic (Middle Kingdom to Greco-Roman)
Largest temple complex in Egypt – 200 acres built over 1,500 years from Senusret I (1956 BCE) to Romans.
🇫🇷 France · Rock art
Font-de-Gaume Cave
Magdalenian ~17–14 ka BP · Magdalenian
Vézère polychrome gallery with 230 Magdalenian figures, last original painted cave open to public.
🇪🇸 Spain · Rock art
Tito Bustillo Cave
Solutrean to Magdalenian ~18–11 ka BP · Magdalenian Cantabrian
Ribadesella polychrome Magdalenian cave sealed until 1968 with 14 ka harpoon culture art.
🇺🇸 United States · Buried city
Buried City of Syke Geoglyph
Jōmon (14000–300 BCE) · Jōmon
Buried City of Syke Geoglyph in Ohio, United States is a Jōmon (14000–300 BCE) buried city attributed to Jōmon culture.
🇨🇳 China · Pyramid
Goguryeo Pyramidal Tombs – Jian (Ji'an)
Goguryeo Kingdom 37 BCE–668 CE (pyramids 3–7 c CE peak) · Goguryeo (Korean–Chinese proto-state)
Eastern Asia's largest tumulus pyramid cluster: 7,000+ stone step-pyramids and earthen mounds 3 Kingdoms Goguryeo (37 BCE–668 CE) across Ji'an (Tonggou, Guonei) and DPRK Pyongyang cluster.
🇨🇳 China · Temple complex
Ancient Building Complex in the Wudang Mountains
Tang → Yuan → Ming Yongle peak → Qing · Taoist (Zhenwu / Xuanwu school)
Taoist sacred mountain complex on 72 peaks 800–1612 m, 9 palaces, 36 convents and 72 cliff temples built primarily 1412–1424 under Ming Yongle emperor (200,000 artisans) as political legitimation…
🇨🇳 China · Temple complex
Bingling Temple Grottoes
Sixteen Kingdoms → Qing 420–1911 · Buddhist (Hexi Silk Road)
Yellow River gorge sanctuary of 183 caves and 694 statues cut into 60 m yellow sandstone cliff above reservoir since 420 CE (Western Qin) to Qing, famous for 27 m Maitreya Buddha (Tang) carved from…
🇸🇩 Sudan · Pyramid
El-Kurru Pyramids
Early Kushite (El-Kurru phase 860–310 BCE; Piye 747–716 BCE) · Kushite (early Napatan)
Earliest Kushite royal necropolis (860–310 BCE) with 22 pyramids for Napatan kings including Piye (Piankhi), founder of Egypt's 25th Dynasty, Taharqa, and early ancestors.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Cahokia Woodhenge
Mississippian Emergent–Early 900–1150 CE · Mississippian (Cahokia)
Mississippian timber Stonehenge: 410 m 48-post solar calendar aligned to Monks Mound solstice.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient village
Tetitla Apartment Compound (Teotihuacan)
Classic Teotihuacan (Tlamimilolpa) · Teotihuacano (multi-ethnic)
One of 2,000 apartment compounds that made Teotihuacan (100 BCE–550 CE, 200,000 inhabitants — largest city in Americas) a planned grid city.
🇮🇷 Iran · Temple complex
Choqa Zanbil (Dur Untash)
Middle Elamite (c.1250–640 BCE) · Elamite
Elamite holy city built by King Untash-Napirisha (1250 BCE) to honor god Inshushinak: immense 105×105 m square ziggurat (originally 53 m high, 5 storeys) at center of three concentric walls with…
🇲🇦 Morocco · Rock-cut
Mere-Inis Rock-Cut Complex
Andean Formative (1800–200 BCE) · Andean Formative
Mere-Inis Rock-Cut Complex in Souss-Massa, Morocco is a Andean Formative (1800–200 BCE) rock_cut attributed to Andean Formative culture.
🇳🇴 Norway · Rock art
Alta Rock Art
Late Stone Age to Early Iron Age (~7000 BCE – 0 CE) · Finnmark hunter-gatherer/fisher to early Sami ancestors
Northern Europe's largest petroglyph field preserves some 6,000 carved figures along the Alta Fjord raised shorelines, tracking post-glacial rebound chronology.
🇿🇦 South Africa · Rock shelter
Diepkloof Rock Shelter — Engraved Ostrich Eggs
Middle Stone Age (130–45 ka, engraved eggs 60 ka) · Still Bay–Howiesons Poort Homo sapiens
Diepkloof Rock Shelter is the 25 m quartzite shelter above Verlorenvlei 15 km E of Elands Bay with 130–45 ka MSA stratigraphy and 270 fragments of engraved ostrich eggshell containers (60 ka…
🇹🇯 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…