🇳🇴 Norway · Tumulus
Oseberg Ship Burial – Vestfold Viking Grave
Viking Age (Merovingian to Viking) · Viking Norse (Yngling dynasty)
21.6-m Viking karvi burial (834 CE) under 44-m mound — richest preserved Viking wooden burial.
🇨🇳 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.
🇷🇺 Russia · Tumulus
Tagar Kurgans – Minusinsk Basin
Early Iron Age (Tagar, Scythian-type) · Tagar (Scythian-Siberian)
Thousand-strong Tagar kurgan field (800 BCE–100 CE) — Khakas-Minusinsk Scythian-Style horizon.
🇨🇳 China · Ancient village
Liangzhu Fanshan Altar Jade Cong Hoard
Neolithic to Iron Age (6000 BCE–500 CE) · Neolithic
Liangzhu Fanshan Altar Jade Cong Hoard in Zhejiang, Hangzhou, China is a Neolithic to Iron Age (6000 BCE–500 CE) ancient village attributed to Neolithic.
🇨🇳 China · Hydraulic works
Zhengguo Canal – Jingyang Irrigation Canal (Zheng Guo Qu)
Warring States to Han continuous · Qin with Han engineer Zheng Guo (鄭國)
246 BCE 'sabotage' canal that irrigated 27,000 ha and enabled Qin to unify China.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Qatna Buried Royal Palace East Wing Hydraulic
Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Qatna Buried Royal Palace East Wing Hydraulic in Homs, Qatna, Syria is a Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) ancient city attributed to Bronze Age.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Temple complex
El-Tod (Djerty / Tuphium)
Old Kingdom to Ptolemaic (2480 BCE–30 BCE; peak Middle Kingdom 12th Dyn) · Ancient Egyptian
Montu war-falcon temple at El-Tod with Sesostris granite pillars and Tod Treasure hoard.
🇹🇯 Tajikistan · Temple complex
Takhti-Sangin (Oxus Temple)
Greco-Bactrian 3rd–2nd c BCE → Kushan 1st–4th c CE · Greco-Bactrian → Kushan Bactria (Amu Darya Oxus cult)
Takhti-Sangin — Hellenistic–Kushan temple city (3rd c BCE–4th c CE) at Vakhsh–Panj confluence forming Amu Darya (Oxus), excavated 1976–91 Pichikyan and Litvinsky (Academy Tadjik).
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan · Ancient city
Kampir Tepe
Hellenistic 330–145 BCE → Yuezhi–Kushan 145 BCE–350 CE → Sasanians 350–500 CE · Greco-Bactrian → Kushan–Sogdian (Oxus trade)
Oxus port fortress (330 BCE–500 CE) at Kampir hill 30 km west Termez — Hellenistic gate, Kushan quay and Alexander port contender.
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan · Rock-cut
Kara Tepe (Termez)
Kushan 50–350 CE → Sasanians 350–400 CE · Kushan Buddhist (Gandharan–Termez school)
Kushan rock-cut cave monastery (50–400 CE) at Kara Tepe NW Termez — 20 caves and Kharosthi–Brahmi–Bactrian trilingual on Amu Darya.
🇮🇷 Iran · Tell
Godin Tepe
Late Chalcolithic to Iron Age II (c.5000–500 BCE; peak Uruk interlude and Median 750–550) · Ubaid-derived Zagros → Uruk colonial (Susa) → Kura-Araxes (Transcaucasian) → Early Transcaucasian → Iron Age Median
Zagros road-stop tell of Uruk traders, Kura-Araxes migrants, Median hall and earliest chemically attested wine.
🇺🇦 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.
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan · Ancient city
Togolok-21 Temple-Fortress
Gonur / Togolok phase BMAC 2300–1700 BCE · Bactria–Margiana (Oxus) civilization
BMAC (Bactria–Margiana) monumental temple-fortress (c.2300–1700 BCE) on Murghab alluvium, satellite of Gonur Tepe, built of mud-brick with central fortified court 30×40 m, fire temple, part of Viktor…
🇫🇷 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.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient village
Deir el-Medina
New Kingdom to Ptolemaic (c.1550–1080 BCE active; village founded by Thutmose I) · Egyptian New Kingdom (workmen community)
Walled village of skilled artisans who built and decorated royal tombs of Valley of the Kings and Queens (1550–1080 BCE).
🇺🇸 United States · Archaeological wonder
Cliff Palace
Pueblo III 1190–1280 CE (Ancestral Puebloan florescence) · Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi, Pueblo III)
Largest cliff dwelling in North America: 150 rooms, 23 kivas, 128–150 inhabitants in alcove 88 m deep, 27 m high below mesa top, with coursed sandstone masonry, tower structures and painted plaster,…
🇮🇶 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.
🇪🇸 Spain · Rock art
El Castillo Cave
Mousterian to Magdalenian ~150–11 ka BP · Neanderthal then Aurignacian to Magdalenian
Monte Castillo reference sequence cave with 40 ka red disks and 150 kyr stratigraphy.
🇵🇪 Peru · Ancient village
Llactapata (Choquequirao Satellite)
Late Horizon 1450–1536 CE · Inca
Choquequirao solar outpost: doorway aligns solstice sunrise onto Choquequirao usnu 5 km across canyon.
🇮🇳 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.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Uruk (Warka)
Neolithic to Sassanian (c.5000 BCE–632 CE; Uruk period city 4000–3100 BCE) · Sumerian / Babylonian / Persian
Type site for Uruk period and first true city (c.4000–3100 BCE), Uruk at peak 2900 BCE housed 50,000–80,000 inside 9.5 km city wall built by Gilgamesh (per Epic).
🇰🇭 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…
🇦🇫 Afghanistan · Ancient city
Ai Khanoum
Hellenistic Seleucid–Greco-Bactrian 300–145 BCE · Seleucid / Greco-Bactrian (Greek in Central Asia)
Hellenistic polis (c.300–145 BCE) at Oxus confluence, founded by Seleucus I as Alexandria on Oxus, excavated 1964–1979 by French DAFA.