🇬🇷 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.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Ancient city
Umm ar-Rasas (Kastron Mefaa)
Roman to Umayyad (3rd–8th c CE; Byzantine peak 5th–8th c) · Roman / Byzantine / Ghassanid / Umayyad
Desert frontier city on Via Nova Traiana, Umm ar-Rasas contains Roman castrum, five Byzantine churches with superb mosaic floors, and the intact 14×6 m mosaic map in St Stephen's Church (718 CE) –…
🇫🇷 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.
🇬🇷 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.
🇲🇷 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.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Mount Nemrut (Nemrut Dağı)
Hellenistic Commagene (c.62 BCE under Antiochos I Theos) · Commagenian (Armenian/Greek/Persian syncretic) Hellenistic
Hierotheseion (tomb-sanctuary) of Antiochos I of Commagene (69–34 BCE), Nemrut Dağı tops 2,150 m peak with 50 m tumulus of crushed rock surrounded by three terraces bearing 8–10 m colossal seated…
🇴🇲 Oman · Hydraulic works
Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman
Iron Age (1000 BCE) to present · Omani, Iron Age to Islamic
Approximately 3,000 still-active aflaj (singular falaj) thread Oman, of which five exemplars — Daris, Al-Khatmeen, Al-Malki, Al-Jeela and Al-Muyassar — are inscribed.
🇮🇳 India · Rock art
Bhimbetka Rock Shelters
Upper Paleolithic to Medieval (100,000 BCE – 2nd century BCE – 1500 CE) · South Asian hunter-gatherer to early historic
Cluster of about 750 sandstone shelters on the Vindhyan fringe with a layered sequence of paintings spanning Mesolithic hunting scenes to historic horsemen and battle processions.
🇯🇵 Japan · Megalith
Oyu Stone Circles
Late Jomon 2000–1500 BCE · Jomon Late
Twin Late Jomon double-stone circles (2000–1500 BCE) — Manza (46 m dia) and Nonakado (42 m dia) placed either side of prefectural road at Oyu, Kazuno, each concentric with sundial-like 2.1 m central…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Temple complex
Karnak Temple Complex
Middle Kingdom to Ptolemaic (c.2000 BCE–100 CE; major phase New Kingdom 1550–1070 BCE) · Egyptian Pharaonic (Middle Kingdom to Greco-Roman)
Largest temple complex in Egypt – 200 acres built over 1,500 years from Senusret I (1956 BCE) to Romans.
🇸🇾 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).
🇪🇸 Spain · Rock art
Altamira Cave
Solutrean–Magdalenian ~18–14 ka BP · Solutrean/Magdalenian Cantabrian
Great Ceiling of polychrome bison — the Paleolithic Sistine Chapel at Santillana del Mar.
🇹🇿 Tanzania · Ancient city
Kilwa Kisiwani
Swahili Coast Medieval (9th–19th c; Sultanate peak 1100–1500) · Swahili (Bantu-Arab-Persian) / Shirazi dynasty / Portuguese interlude
Swahili stone-town entrepôt (9th–19th c) controlling Indian Ocean gold trade from Sofala and Great Zimbabwe: Gereza fortress (Portuguese 1505), Great Mosque (oldest sub-Saharan mosque 1131–1770…
🇪🇸 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.
🇵🇪 Peru · Hydraulic works
Qhapaq Ñan – Andean Road System
Inca Empire with antecedents Wari/Tiwanaku (~1000–1532 CE; Inca 1438–1532 CE) · Inca (with pre-Inca antecedents)
The backbone of Tawantinsuyu, Qhapaq Ñan runs 6,000 km along the Andean crest from Colombia to Chile, with east–west transversal roads totalling over 23,000 km.
🇱🇾 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,…
🇸🇪 Sweden · Ancient city
Visby City Walls and Medieval Defences
High Middle Ages (c.1150–1400 CE) · Gotlandic Hanseatic / Medieval Scandinavian
3.4 km medieval ring wall encircling Hanseatic Visby, best preserved in Scandinavia, built 13th–14th c. limestone with 27 towers, gate towers and caponier.
🇺🇸 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.
🇸🇦 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.