🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Hopeton Earthworks
Middle Woodland Hopewell 100 BCE–500 CE · Hopewell tradition
Hopewell 22 ha circle-square with 321 m Great Circle, UNESCO 2023 unit-of-measure type-site.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Tikal Temple VI (Temple of the Inscriptions)
Late Classic (Tepeu 2) · Maya (Tikal dynasty)
Tikal Temple VI — 12 m pyramid with 12 m roof comb bearing 180-glyph history text of Tikal 766 CE, SE causeway terminus.
🇹🇿 Tanzania · Rock art
Kondoa Rock Art Sites
Late Stone Age to recent (~3000 BCE – 19th century CE; most 1500 BCE onward) · Sandawe hunter-gatherer to Bantu pastoralist, later Warangi
Over 150 shelters scattered across the Kondoa escarpment display stratified painting traditions: early naturalistic eland and human figures with elongated heads (hunter-gatherer), later white…
🇲🇽 Mexico · Pyramid
Uxmal – Pyramid of the Magician
Late Classic to Postclassic Puuc (600–1000 CE) · Maya (Puuc)
Iconic rounded-corner Puuc pyramid 40 m high with oval base 46 × 37 m, steep west stair 150 steps at 60°, five superimposed temples (Temple I-V) built over 600 years: Chenes then Puuc.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Pachacamac Pyramids
Lima 200–600 → Wari → Ichma 1100–1470 → Inca 1470–1533 (pyramids Ichma period) · Lima → Wari → Ichma → Inca
Pan-Andean oracle sanctuary 200–1533 with 17 ramp pyramids (Huaca del Sol Inca? Not, Pachacamac pyramids): large stepped terraces with central ramp (Ichma style 1100–1470), Inca Temple of the Sun 30…
🇬🇷 Greece · Temple complex
Heraion of Samos
Archaic to Roman ~900 BCE–300 CE · Samian Greek (Ionian)
Polycrates' 109 m giant Ionic Heraion - largest attempted Greek temple on Samos plain.
🇹🇿 Tanzania · Archaeological wonder
Olduvai Gorge — Cradle of Humankind
Early Pleistocene to Holocene (2.1 Ma–15 ka Beds I–V) · Paranthropus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus → Maasai
Olduvai Gorge is the 50 km Great Rift tributary gorge (48 m deep) exposing 2.1 Ma to 15 ka stratified sequence where Louis & Mary Leakey found Zinjanthropus (Paranthropus boisei 1.75 Ma), Homo…
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan · Ancient city
Kunya-Urgench Ancient Town
Khwarezmshah to Golden Horde 995–1388 · Khwarezmshah / Seljuk / Golden Horde
Lost capital of Khwarezm in Amu Darya delta, flourishing 10th–14th c. with 60 m Kutlug Timur minaret tallest in Central Asia and Turabek Khanum mausoleum (1360s) with world's most complex girikh dome…
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Ouadane (Wadan)
Medieval to Early Modern (12th–19th c) · Berber (Sanhaja) / Arab / Almoravid
Almoravid twin-ksar 12th c on Adrar scarp with 13-m minaret and caravan cisterns 300 m.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Pyramid
Los Guachimontones (Teuchitlán Tradition)
Late Formative–Early Classic Teuchitlán 350 BCE–400 CE · Teuchitlán tradition (Western Mexico)
Mesoamerica's only circular pyramids: nine concentric guachimontones with shaft tombs and Tequila volcano obsidian.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Palmyra
Hellenistic to Roman (Palmyrene Empire interlude) · Aramaean Palmyrene → Roman
Desert oasis emporium on Silk Road (1st c. BCE–273 CE) — 'Bride of the Desert' — caravans of Queen Zenobia who challenged Rome (267–272 CE, sacked by Aurelian).
🇸🇳 Senegal · Megalith
Sine Ngayène — Largest Senegambian Stone Circles
Medieval Senegambian (750–1150 CE) · Serer megalithic
Sine Ngayène is the largest Senegambian stone-circle nucleus (Senegal) with 52 circles including the 'Diallombere' double circle Ø6.5 m and 110 m long stone alignment, enclosing 1,000+ burials on 5…
🇪🇸 Spain · Megalith
Naveta des Tudons
Late Bronze Age · Talayotic culture of Menorca (Pretalayotic)
Menorca's iconic boat-shaped naveta tomb — 14 m cyclopean funerary monument 1200-750 BCE, UNESCO 2023.
🇱🇾 Libya · Ancient city
Sabratha
Phoenician to Byzantine (c.500 BCE–643 CE; monumental Roman 1st–3rd c CE) · Phoenician / Punic / Hellenistic / Roman / Byzantine
Tripolitanian Phoenician port (5th c BCE) with Hellenistic and then Roman city: Theatre of Sabratha – most complete Roman theatre in Africa (Marcus Aurelius era 175–200 CE, cavea 92.6 m, three-storey…
🇮🇷 Iran · Hydraulic works
Shushtar Hydraulic System
Achaemenid foundation to Sassanian peak (5th century BCE – 3rd century CE) · Achaemenid, Sassanid Persian (with Roman engineering)
Sassanid re-engineering of the Karun River where the Band-e Kaisar (Caesar's Dam) — said built by Roman soldiers captured with Emperor Valerian — diverted the river into the Gargar canal feeding 40…
🇨🇷 Costa Rica · Megalith
Diquís Stone Spheres
Chiriquí period (~600–1500 CE; peak Aguas Buenas 800–1350 CE) · Diquís (Chiriquí, Isthmo-Colombian)
Costa Rica's Diquís Delta preserves over 300 near-perfect spheres of gabbro up to 2.66 m diameter and 16 tonnes, shaped by pecking and grinding until calipers verify sphericity within 2 cm.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Archaeological wonder
Qasr Amra
Umayyad Caliphate (c.711–715 CE) · Umayyad Arab / Byzantine influence
Umayyad desert castle bathhouse (qasr) built by Caliph Walid I (705–715 CE) famous for extensive frescoes: vaulted audience hall with hunting scenes, musicians, six kings (Byzantine, Sasanian,…
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Archaeological wonder
Takalik Abaj
Preclassic to Classic Olmec–Maya transition 800 BCE–900 CE · Olmec to Maya (K'iche' Pacific)
Olmec-Maya transition site with earliest Long Count stela 126 CE.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Pyramid
Pyramid of Ankhenespepi III — Queen of Merenre/Pepi II
Old Kingdom, 6th Dynasty · Ancient Egyptian
Small queens pyramid south of Pepi I complex, built for Ankhenespepi III, daughter of Merenre Nemtyemsaf I and granddaughter of Pepi I/Ankhenespepi I, who married Pepi II.
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia · Ancient city
Hegra (Mada'in Salih)
Nabataean to Roman (1st c BCE–106 CE annexation; tombs 1st c CE) · Nabataean / Roman / Thamudic
Southernmost major Nabataean city on incense route, Hegra preserves 111 rock-cut tombs with facades akin to Petra (but freestanding massifs), hydrological wells, and Roman annexation inscriptions.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Priene Bouleuterion Temple — Athena Precinct Council Sanctuary
Hellenistic (350–150 BCE) with Roman annex · Milesian-Ionian Prieneans under Alexander patron
Council sanctuary with 640-seat Bouleuterion and Augustus calendar stoa 40 m from Athena temple.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Pyramid
Pyramid of Wedjebten — Queen of Pepi II
Old Kingdom, 6th Dynasty · Ancient Egyptian
Southernmost queens pyramid of Pepi II, belonging to Queen Wedjebten, likely mother of a late Pepi II prince.
🇦🇺 Australia · Necropolis
Ben Glen Necropolis
Harappan (2600–1900 BCE) · Harappan
Ben Glen Necropolis in New South Wales, Australia is a Harappan (2600–1900 BCE) necropolis attributed to Harappan culture.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Hopewell Culture National Historical Park (Mound City Group)
Hopewell 1–500 CE (Middle Woodland, peak 100–400 CE) · Hopewell tradition (Scioto Hopewell)
Finest Hopewell enclosure: 13-acre (5.3 ha) flat-topped earthen-walled enclosure (1,211 m perimeter, 1–1.8 m high) near Scioto River enclosing 24 conical, elongated and effigy mounds.