🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia · Hydraulic works
Wadi Hanifah Dams (Diriyah Dam System)
Najdi Emirate to First Saudi State · Najdi oasis (Diriyah Amirship)
Wadi Hanifah: 6 Najdi 15th-18th c. wadi dams at Diriyah UNESCO site, Riyadh 24.73N 46.57E.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Pyramid
Mazghuna North Pyramid
Middle Kingdom, 12th–13th Dynasty, ~1800 BCE · Ancient Egyptian
Northern Mazghuna mudbrick pyramid, Dahshur south (c.1800 BCE), 52.5 m base, unfinished Sobekneferu candidate.
🇭🇳 Honduras · Ancient city
Copán
Classic 426–822 CE (dynastic Copán, peak 695–820) · Maya (southeast Petén sphere, Copán kingdom, non-Maya frontier)
Premier Classic southeastern Maya capital and sculpture capital: Acropolis with 4,500 glyph Hierarchical Stairway (longest Classic Maya text – 72 steps, 2,200 glyphs recording 14 kings), Rosalila…
🇸🇩 Sudan · Pyramid
Meroe North Cemetery Pyramid Field (Begarawiya)
Meroitic Kingdom (300 BCE–350 CE, preceded by Napatan 750–300 BCE Napatan early pyramids) · Kushite (Meroitic, post-Napatan, Egyptianised)
Northern royal necropolis of Kingdom of Kush at Meroe — Begarawiya North: 45 steep pyramids (Napatan to Meroitic 300 BCE–350 CE) of sandstone, 8–30 m base, 12–30 m high with chapel reliefs, steep 70°…
🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan · Ancient city
Navekat (Krasnaya Rechka – Ak-Beshim West)
Sogdian 6–8 c. → Karluks 8–9 c. → Qarakhanid 10–12 c. · Sogdian → Turkic Khaganate → Qarakhanid (Chu Silk Road)
Sogdian Navekat city (6–12 c. CE) at Krasnaya Rechka 18 km west Suyab — 20 ha shahristan with 3 m Buddha vs Suyab's khagan palace.
🇸🇩 Sudan · Pyramid
Hillat el-Arab
New Kingdom to Third Intermediate/Napatan (1200–750 BCE) · Egyptian colonial and Kushite (Napatan)
Napatan rock-cut cemetery 3 km south Jebel Barkal (1200–750 BCE), pyramids 4–6 m base, rock tombs.
🇸🇩 Sudan · Pyramid
El-Kurru Royal Pyramid Field (Napata Ancestral)
Early Napatan (Tumulus c.890–750 BCE, Napatan pyramids 750–650 BCE) · Kushite (Early Napatan, 25th Dynasty founders, Egyptianised post-Piye)
Ancestral royal cemetery of Kush at Napata (890–650 BCE, Tumulus generation to early Napatan) with 20 pyramids (Ku. Tum. 1–6 early tumulus-pyramids 12 m, Ku.
🇸🇩 Sudan · Pyramid
Jebel Barkal Pyramid Necropolis
Napatan period (750–300 BCE, peak 700–500 BCE) temples from New Kingdom 1500 BCE · Kushite (Napatan, Amun priests of Barkal)
Pyramid field at sacred mountain Jebel Barkal (Napata capital, 750–300 BCE): ~30 pyramids 10–15 m base clustered at north, west, south groups around 98 m mesa with pinnacle.
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Shahr-i Sokhta — The Burnt City
Early Bronze Age Helmand–Jiroft horizon (c.3200–1800 BCE; variant 3200–2350 then eclipse) · Helmand/Sistan Bronze Age (Burnt City culture) — network with Shahr-i Sokhta, Mundigak, Indus
151 ha Burnt City between Sumer and Indus — animated goat bowl, artificial eye and 40,000 graves.
🇪🇹 Ethiopia · Ancient city
Harar Jugol — Fortified Historic Town
Medieval Islamic (10th–19th c) · Harari / Adal Sultanate / Oromo
Harar Jugol is the 48 ha fortified historic town of Harar, Ethiopia, enclosed by 16th-century 3.3 km limestone walls (Jugol) with 5 gates, considered the fourth holiest city of Islam with 110 mosques…
🇩🇰 Denmark · Megalith
Jelling Stones
Viking Age (Jelling dynasty) · Viking Age Danes / Jelling dynasty
UNESCO Viking royal complex at Jelling — two mounds, Gorm and Harald Bluetooth runestones (965 CE) and ship outline.
🇸🇪 Sweden · Megalith
Tanum Rock Carvings (Hällristningar Tanum)
Bronze Age · Nordic Bronze Age (Bohuslän rock art tradition)
UNESCO Bohuslän rock art — 600 panels / 2500 pecked figures (ships, sun, ploughs) on granite, 1700–500 BCE.
🇺🇸 United States · Archaeological wonder
Taos Pueblo
Ancestral Pueblo to historic 1000 CE–present (Hlauuma founded c.1000–1450 CE) · Taos Pueblo (Tiwa language, Northern Tiwa; ancestors Ancestral Puebloans)
Living Native American community and UNESCO World Heritage Site (1992) inhabited continuously for >1,000 years: two multi-storey adobe complexes Hlauuma (north house) and Hlaukwima (south house) up…
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Monte Albán
Formative to Classic 500 BCE–850 CE (Monte Albán I–V; apogee IIIa 250–500 CE, IIIb–IV 500–850) · Zapotec (Beni Zaa); later Mixtec reuse
Zapotec capital on artificially levelled 400 m hilltop (6 km²) commanding Oaxaca Valley confluence: Main Plaza (300×150 m), South and North Platforms, Pyramid of the Dancers (Temple I) with Danzantes…
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Temple complex
Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi
Timurid 1389–1405 over Yasawi 12th c. · Timurid / Sufi Sunni
Colossal Timurid shrine (1389–1405) over 12th-c. Sufi poet Khoja Ahmed Yasawi's grave, commissioned by Timur to draw Islam to steppe, largest brick dome in Central Asia (44 m high, 22 m span) and…
🇱🇹 Lithuania · Ancient city
Kernavė Archaeological Reserve
Mesolithic to Medieval (c.7000 BCE–1390 CE) · Baltic (Lithuanian)
UNESCO World Heritage ensemble in the Neris valley 35 km NW of Vilnius, with five hillforts (Aukuro, Mindaugo, Lizdeikos, Pilies and Kriveikiškis), unfortified settlements, burial fields and medieval…
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Uxmal
Late Classic to Terminal Classic 600–1000 CE (apogee 800–950, Puuc apogee 850–925) · Maya (Puuc tradition, Northern Maya lowlands)
Greatest Puuc architectural city of northern Yucatán (600–950 CE) with veneer mosaic stonework, Puuc columns, Chac masks and lattice façades: Pyramid of the Magician (Adivino, 35 m high, oval…
🇿🇦 South Africa · Ancient city
Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape
Early to Middle Iron Age (K2 culture 1000–1220; Mapungubwe phase 1220–1290 CE) · Gokomere-Zhizo / Kalanga-Shona precursor / Mapungubwe culture
Iron Age kingdom (900–1290 CE) on Shashe–Limpopo confluence, Mapungubwe was southern Africa's earliest class-stratified state: elite on Mapungubwe Hill, commoners at foot, gold working – famous gold…
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient village
Sukur Cultural Landscape
Late Medieval to Modern (16th–20th c. CE; iron 16th c.) · Marghi–Wandala (Chadic)
Sukur is a Mandara Mountains hilltop settlement at 1,045 m, UNESCO World Heritage 1999, with dry-stone terraced fields 1,000–3,045 ft, paved pathways, Hidi (chief) palace with megalithic granite…
🇧🇷 Brazil · Rock art
Pedra Furada Rock Art
Pleistocene to Early Holocene · Nordeste Tradition (early Amerind)
Capivara arch shelter heart of 1,150-painting Nordeste tradition with pre-Clovis debate hearths.
🇦🇺 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)…
🇧🇷 Brazil · Rock art
Serra da Capivara Rock Art
Upper Paleolithic to early Holocene (~25,000 BCE – 2000 BCE disputed; art ~9000 BCE onward) · Paleoindian / early Nordeste tradition; Pedra Furada phase
Semiarid caatinga plateau with over 400 painted shelters bearing perhaps 30,000 figures, among the densest and most narrative rock-art landscapes in the Americas.
🇬🇷 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…