🇰🇭 Cambodia · Hydraulic works
West Baray — Angkor Hydraulic Reservoir
Angkor (Baphuon style middle Angkor) · Khmer Hindu (Suryavarman I court)
Khmer 7.8×2.1 km reservoir 1050 CE 53 million m³ with West Mebon island temple, hydraulic empire core.
🇨🇳 China · Temple complex
Beishan Grottoes Dazu
Tang to Southern Song · Late Tang to Song Sichuan Buddhist (Wei Junjing to Zhao Zhifeng line)
UNESCO Beishan's 290-niche scholar's cliff 2 km north of Dazu with Song filial piety reliefs.
🇮🇷 Iran · Temple complex
Bishapur — Sassanid City and Anahita Temple
Sassanian Early (Shapur I–II, 241–379 CE) · Sassanian Persian with Roman–Palmyrene craftsmen (prisoners)
Shapur I 260 CE grid city by Roman POWs after Valerian capture — Anahita water temple, mosaics, Chogan gorge 6 reliefs.
🇺🇦 Ukraine · Submerged site
Chersonesus Taurica – Submerged Quays (Chersonesos)
Classical to Medieval (422 BCE – 14th c. CE) · Doric Greek / Bosporan / Roman / Byzantine / Kievan Rus' orbit
422 BCE Doric Black Sea polis whose harbour quarter now lies under Quarantine Bay.
🇫🇷 France · Rock art
Lascaux Cave
Upper Paleolithic (Solutrean/Magdalenian, ~17,000–15,000 BCE) · Cro-Magnon hunter-gatherer (Magdalenian)
Sealed Upper Paleolithic cave on the Vézère renowned as the 'Sistine Chapel of Prehistory' for about 600 parietal paintings and nearly 1,500 engravings executed with astonishing naturalism.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Babylon
Old Babylonian to Neo-Babylonian and Hellenistic (1894 BCE–141 BCE; monumental peak Nebuchadnezzar II 604–562 BCE) · Babylonian / Assyrian / Persian / Hellenistic
Capital of Babylonian empire (1894 BCE–539 BCE) on Euphrates, Babylon at its greatest under Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar II (604–562 BCE): Processional Way, Ishtar Gate (glazed brick dragons and…
🇲🇳 Mongolia · Megalith
Khirigsuur Burial Complexes
Late Bronze Age (~1400–700 BCE) · Khirigsuur culture (Mongolian pastoralist)
Mounded circular stone platforms 2–20 m diameter surrounded by rectangular or polygonal enclosures with four cardinal knolls, often associated with deer stones and slab burials.
🇮🇳 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.
🇰🇭 Cambodia · Ancient city
Angkor Thom and the Bayon
Khmer Empire 1181–1243 CE (Bayon peak Jayavarman VII) · Khmer Mahayana Buddhist (with Shaiva syncretism)
Khmer capital city (late 12th century by Jayavarman VII) covering 9 km² walled square with Bayon state temple – 54 towers with 216 enigmatic smiling Avalokiteshvara faces blending Mahayana compassion…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Necropolis
Abusir Necropolis
Old Kingdom, 5th Dynasty (mainly); Early Dynastic to Late Period · Ancient Egyptian (Memphite)
Abusir (Egyptian pr wsjr, 'House of Osiris'; Arabic Abu Sir) is the Fifth Dynasty royal necropolis on the Western Desert plateau edge between Giza and Saqqara, part of the Memphis and its Necropolis…
🇺🇦 Ukraine · Submerged site
Chersonesos — Quarantine Bay Central Submerged Mole
Classical to Byzantine (5th c. BCE – 1400 CE) · Herakleian Greek / Bosporan / Byzantine
Central mole of Chersonesos Quarantine Bay — 65 m ashlar harbour mole at 2–5 m dividing naval/mercantile basins.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Pyramid
Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III (Dahshur)
Middle Kingdom (12th Dynasty) · Ancient Egyptian
12th-Dynasty Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III at Dahshur — 105 m mudbrick mass c.1860 BCE, blackened core, first quartzite vault and basalt pyramidion, abandoned for Hawara.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Pyramid
Pyramid of Ameny Qemau (South Saqqara)
Second Intermediate Period incipient / late Middle Kingdom · Ancient Egyptian
Early 13th-Dynasty quartzite-sarcophagus pyramid of Ameny Qemau at South Saqqara — 52 m base c.1793 BCE with intact monolithic sarcophagus and canopic chest.
🇨🇳 China · Hydraulic works
Dujiangyan Irrigation System
Warring States, Qin to Qing continuous · Qin state engineers under Li Bing (later successive dynasties maintenance)
256 BCE Qin weir still irrigating 5,300 km²—world's oldest dam-less hydraulic system.
🇰🇪 Kenya · Archaeological wonder
Lamu
Lamu or Lamu Town is a small town on Lamu Island, which in turn is a part of the Lamu Archipelago in Kenya on the continent of Africa.
🇿🇦 South Africa · Cave
Blombos Cave M1 Still Bay Bifacial Layer
Upper Palaeolithic (35000–12000 BP) · Upper Palaeolithic
Blombos Cave M1 Still Bay Bifacial Layer in Western Cape, Blombos, South Africa is a Upper Palaeolithic (35000–12000 BP) cave attributed to Upper Palaeolithic.
🇮🇹 Italy · Rock art
Valcamonica Rock Engravings – Naquane National Park
Epipalaeolithic to modern with Iron Age peak · Camunni (Rhaetic-adjacent Alpine) and predecessors
140,000 figures on 2,000 Alpine slabs—world's densest European rock art valley (UNESCO 1979 No.1 Italy).
🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan · Ancient city
Suyab (Ak-Beshim)
Western Turkic → Tang protectorate → Karluks/Qarakhanid 6–12 c. CE · Sogdian → Turkic Khaganate → Karluks (Silk Road Buddhist-Christian-Manichaean)
Sogdian–Turkic Silk Road capital (c.6–12 c. CE) at Ak-Beshim in the Chu Valley — 35 ha walled shahristan (650×560 m) with Buddhist temple complex (two temples 50×30 m with clay Buddhas), Nestorian…
🇱🇦 Laos · Ancient temple
Vat Phou (Vat Phou and Associated Settlements)
Chenla (5th–8th CE) → Khmer Angkor Wat (11th–13th) → Lao Buddhist (13th+) · Chenla Khmer (Hindu Shaiva) → Angkor Wat Khmer → Lan Xang Laotian Buddhist
Khmer Hindu–Buddhist temple complex and ancient city (c.5th–13th century CE, Chenla to Angkor Wat period) at Phou Khao foot near Mekong in Champasak, Laos — UNESCO World Heritage 'Vat Phou and…
🇨🇳 China · Temple complex
Yungang West Cave 20
Northern Wei (Northern Dynasties) · Northern Wei royal Buddhist (Toba Wei imperial atelier under Tanyao)
13.7-m open-fronted seated Buddha of Yungang's Five Tanyao west series — most iconic Wei colossus.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Pyramid
Zawyet el-Aryan Unfinished Pyramid North Trench
Old Kingdom (2686–2181 BCE) · Ancient Egyptian (Old Kingdom)
Zawyet el-Aryan Unfinished Pyramid North Trench in Giza, Zawyet el-Aryan, Egypt is a Old Kingdom (2686–2181 BCE) pyramid attributed to Ancient Egyptian (Old Kingdom).
🇪🇬 Egypt · Pyramid
Layer Pyramid
Old Kingdom, 3rd Dynasty, ~2645 BCE · Ancient Egyptian
Unfinished layer pyramid of Khaba at Zawiyet el-Aryan (c.2645 BCE), 84 m base, accretion-layer technique.
🇦🇫 Afghanistan · Temple complex
Bamyan Buddhas
Late Buddhist Gandhara–Tokharistan 5th–10th c; Hun–Turk Shahi patronage · Gandhara–Sogdian Buddhist (Hindu Kush)
55 m and 38 m colossal Buddhas on Bamyan canyon (544–644 CE) — 1000 caves, oil murals, UNESCO 208.
🇵🇪 Peru · Archaeological wonder
Chavín de Huántar
Early Horizon / Formative 1200–500 BCE (Old Temple 1200–900, New Temple 750–500 BCE) · Chavín (Early Horizon Andean formative tradition, culmination of Kotosh-Urabarriu)
Andean Formative mother temple (1200–500 BCE) at 3,180 m near Cordillera Blanca with U-shaped Old Temple (1000×100 m) and New Temple Plaza, Lanzón monolith (4.53 m granite anthropomorphic feline with…