🇫🇷 France · Hydraulic works
Pont du Gard — Roman Aqueduct Bridge
Roman Imperial (Augustan-Claudian, mid-1st c. CE) · Roman Gallia Narbonensis (Nemausus)
Augustinian 48.8-m 3-tier bridge 50-km Nîmes aqueduct 35,000 m³/d, 6-tonne dry stone.
🇯🇵 Japan · Tumulus
Daisenryo Kofun (Nintoku's Tomb)
Middle Kofun 5th c CE (Yamato apex) · Yamato middle Kofun (Mozu group)
Daisenryo Kofun — largest kofun in Japan (486 m long, 35 m high) and one of world's largest tombs (equal Great Pyramid footprint), built mid 5th c CE (c.425–475) for Emperor Nintoku per tradition, on…
🇯🇵 Japan · Ancient village
Korekawa Site
Middle to Late Jomon 3500–1700 BCE · Middle–Late Jomon (Hachinohe region)
Middle–Late Jomon lacquer production village (c.3500–1700 BCE) on the Nii River terrace at Hachinohe, Aomori — 3 ha with 80+ pit dwellings, large midden, and lacquer-ware workshop that produced 400+…
🇯🇵 Japan · Ancient village
Chōshichiyachi Shell Midden
Middle to Late Jomon 3500–1700 BCE · Middle–Late Jomon (Hachinohe wetland)
Middle–Late Jomon wetland shell midden (c.3500–1700 BCE) adjacent to Korekawa at Chōshichiyachi, Hachinohe — 2 ha midden (Corbicula and yamato shijimi) 3 m thick with 20+ pit dwellings and…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Temple complex
Luxor Temple
New Kingdom to Greco-Roman (c.1400 BCE–300 CE; main 1390–1225 BCE) · Egyptian New Kingdom / Roman / Islamic layer
New Kingdom temple built by Amenhotep III (1388–1350 BCE), Tutankhamun, Horemheb and Ramesses II on Nile east bank.
🇺🇸 United States · Archaeological wonder
Aztec Ruins National Monument
Pueblo II–III 1115–1287 CE (Chacoan 1120–1140; Mesa Verde 1200–1287) · Ancestral Puebloan (Chacoan then Mesa Verdean)
Misnamed 12th-century Great House built by Chacoan Ancestral Puebloans (Aztec West, 400 rooms, 3 storeys) and later occupied by Mesa Verdeans: E-shaped pueblo with Great Kiva (14.6 m diameter,…
🇦🇷 Argentina · Rock art
Cueva de las Manos
Early Holocene to late Patagonia (~9300 BCE – 700 CE) · Patagonian hunter-gatherer (Tehuelche ancestors)
Canyon sandstone cave whose walls retain over 800 negative hand stencils made by spraying pigment through bone pipes around hands, interspersed with guanaco hunts, bola weapons and geometric discs.
🇬🇷 Greece · Temple complex
Epidaurus Sanctuary of Asklepios
Archaic to Hellenistic 6th–2nd c. BCE · Ancient Greek Argive
Asklepios healing sanctuary with world's most acoustically perfect 14,000-seat Greek theater.
🇷🇺 Russia · Archaeological wonder
Pazyryk Kurgans
Scythian Iron Age (~600–250 BCE; main Pazyryk phase 300 BCE) · Pazyryk (Scythian/Altaic nomadic)
Five large larch-log chamber tombs in the dry Ukok and Ulagan valleys where permafrost preserved tattooed chieftains, silk from China, Persian pile carpets (the oldest extant, 5th century BCE) and 10…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Archaeological wonder
Valley of the Kings
New Kingdom (c.1539–1075 BCE; 18th–20th Dynasties) · Egyptian New Kingdom
Rock-cut royal necropolis where for 500 years (16th–11th c BCE) 63 tombs of New Kingdom pharaohs and nobles were cut into Theban hills: KV62 Tutankhamun (Carter 1922 with near-intact burial), KV34…
🇲🇽 Mexico · Pyramid
Xochicalco – Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl
Epiclassic Mesoamerica 650–900 CE · Post-Teotihuacan Central Mexican (Xochicalco–Cacaxtla sphere, Maya artists?)
Epiclassic hilltop city 650–900 CE after Teotihuacan fall: leveled ridge with 9-m high Quetzalcoatl Pyramid covered 360° with exquisitely carved plumed serpent panels intertwined with seated Maya…
🇲🇱 Mali · Temple complex
Great Mosque of Djenné
Medieval to Modern (13th c original; current 1907 reconstruction) · Sudano-Sahelian / Malian / French colonial restoration
World's largest mudbrick (banco) structure, Great Mosque of Djenné dominates island town: 56×56 m, 11 m high, three 34 m minarets with ostrich-egg pinnacles, toron wooden poles for annual…
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Tikal Temple I (Temple of the Great Jaguar)
Late Classic Maya (700–734 CE) · Maya (Tikal Mutul dynasty)
Classic Maya superstructure 55 m high (45 m pyramid + 12 m temple and 12 m roof comb) on Great Plaza east, funerary pyramid of Jasaw Chan K'awiil I (695–734), entombed vault 6 m under with jade…
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Hampi Vittala Temple Complex
Vijayanagara Empire 15th–16th c. (1336–1565 peak) · Vijayanagara Hindu (Kannada-Telugu)
Vittala Temple (1513 under Krishnadevaraya) – Vijayanagara's sculptural apex: Garuda stone chariot (temple car shrine), 56 musical pillars (Saregama columns emitting seven notes), 3-tower gopuram,…
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Tikal Temple V
Early Late Classic c. 650–700 CE · Maya (Tikal)
Second tallest Tikal pyramid 57 m high south complex behind Palace: oldest of major Tikal temples (c. 650–700), with two talud-tablero influenced early masks and massive sheer limestone platform.
🇮🇹 Italy · Temple complex
Paestum Temples of Poseidon
Archaeic-Classical Greek 600–450 BCE · Greek (Achaean colonists) then Lucanian and Roman
Mainland Italy's three perfect Greek Doric temples, era 550–460 BCE.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Ziggurat of Eridu (Tell Abu Shahrain)
Ubaid to Ur III (5400–2112 BCE; ziggurat Ur III 2112–2000 BCE) · Sumerian (Eridu, Ubaid → Uruk → Ur III)
Tell at supposed first Sumerian city Eridu, sacred to water god Enki/Ea (Abzu). Eighteen superimposed mudbrick temples (Ubaid 5400–3800 BCE) culminating in Ur III ziggurat (~250 × 300 m enclosure, 3…
🇻🇳 Vietnam · Temple complex
My Son Sanctuary
Champa Kingdom 4th–13th c CE (peak 7th–12th c) · Cham Hindu (Shaiva, formerly Champa)
Champa Hindu temple valley (4th–13th c CE) with 70 red-brick Shaiva towers (kalan) along Thu Bon River, the longest continuous Hindu-Byzantine tradition in Vietnam.
🇵🇪 Peru · Geoglyph
Nazca Lines
Early Intermediate Period, Paracas to Nazca culture · Paracas / Nazca
Over 300 geometric and figurative geoglyphs etched by removing dark desert pavement to reveal light subsoil across 450 km² of arid Pampas, including 1.8 km hummingbird, monkey, spider, and trapezoids…
🇨🇳 China · Rock art
Zuojiang Huashan East Cliff — Fusui Mingjiang Rock Paintings
Bronze Age to Iron Age (Luoyue) · Luoyue (proto-Zhuang) Dian-related
Fusui east cliff of UNESCO Huashan 170-m hematite painting with 1100 frog-shamans and bronze drums, 500 BCE–200 CE.
🇮🇳 India · Hydraulic works
Dholavira Reservoirs — Harappan Urban Hydraulics
Harappan (Early to Late Harappan 3000–1800 BCE) · Harappan (Indus Valley Civilization Kotada Timba)
Harappan desert city 16 rock-cut reservoirs and dam-fed canals 3000–1800 BCE on Kutch island.
🇮🇷 Iran · Hydraulic works
Band-e Gargar Canal & Dam (Shushtar Darian Canal Head)
Sasanian (Shapur I–II) – UNESCO 1315 ensemble · Sasanian with Roman engineer captives
Sasanian Gargar diversion dam (210 m, 9 slots) feeding 47-km handmade canal watering Mianab plain.
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Tumulus
Boralday Saka Kurgans (Boralday Steppe Necropolis)
Early Saka (Scythian) Iron Age · Saka Tigrakhauda (pointed-hat Sakas)
Saka steppe royal cemetery 28 km from Almaty: 81 kurgans 45-105 m with tigrine gold plaques.
🇪🇸 Spain · Rock art
Albarracín Rock Art — Pinsapar and Prado del Navazo
Epipalaeolithic to Iberian (8000 BCE – 500 CE) · Epipalaeolithic hunters, Neolithic, Chalcolithic Schematic, Iberian
Aragon pine forest 22 shelters Levantine white archers and schematic bull 6 ka BCE–Iberian, UNESCO 874.