🇫🇷 France · Rock art
Pech Merle Cave
Gravettian to Solutrean ~29–20 ka BP · Gravettian hunter-gatherer
Quercy cave with Spotted Horses and 307 hand stencils, 25 ka Gravettian masterpiece.
🇨🇾 Cyprus · Submerged site
Pyla-Koutsopetria – Roman Anchorage off Cyprus Southeast Coast
Hellenistic to Early Byzantine (200 BCE – 650 CE) · Hellenistic Greek / Roman / Early Byzantine
Roman coastal roadstead on Cyprus — 120 m mole rubble and ballast piles 1–3 m off Pyla beach.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Kizil Caves (Bezeklik precursor)
Six Dynasties to Tang ~300–800 CE · Tocharian Kuchean Buddhist with Gandharan influence
Kucha's 236 lapis-blue Jataka caves - China's earliest Buddhist grottoes on the Silk Road.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Archaeological wonder
Syene Granite Quarries
Old Kingdom to Roman (2700 BCE–500 CE; peak 1500–30 BCE) · Ancient Egyptian / Roman
Syene (Aswan) granite quarries are Old–Ptolemaic hardstone source producing 100-m-long unfinished obelisk of Hatshepsut (1,200 t) abandoned in bedrock crack, plus sarcophagi, colossi and pavements…
🇯🇵 Japan · Ancient village
Ofune Jomon Site
Early–Middle Jomon 3500–2000 BCE · Jomon Early–Middle Hokkaido maritime
Early–Middle Jomon coastal settlement (3500–2000 BCE) on Ofune River terrace facing Uchiura Bay, Hokkaido, renowned for 100+ deep pit graves, stone pile graves, and massive whale-bone midden (sperm…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Hydraulic works
Shunet el-Zebib, Abydos
Early Dynastic 2nd Dynasty ~2750 BCE · Early Egyptian Dynastic
2750 BCE 137 m mudbrick enclosure - Egypt's oldest monumental walls prototyping pyramid complex.
🇵🇪 Peru · Hydraulic works
Moray Agricultural Terraces
Late Horizon, Inca (~1300–1530 CE) · Inca
Three colossal natural depressions on the Maras plateau were amplified by Incas into concentric circular andenes up to 150 m across and 30 m deep, each terrace a microclimate ring with temperature…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Archaeological wonder
Yesemek Quarry and Sculpture Workshop
Hittite Empire to Neo-Hittite (c.1375–800 BCE; main workshop 900–800 BCE) · Hittite / Neo-Hittite (Sam'al/Aramean patronage)
Largest Iron Age stone sculpture workshop in the Near East, Yesemek operated as Hittite (1375–1335 BCE) then Neo-Hittite quarry (900–800 BCE) with unfinished basalt sphinxes, lions, mountain gods and…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Menteşe Höyük
Neolithic (6400–6000 BCE, Fikirtepe) · Marmara Neolithic
Neolithic (6400–6000 BCE, Fikirtepe) Marmara Neolithic tell at Bursa Province, Iznik Basin – fikirtepe hamlet on former lake terrace (dims Mound 120 m diam, 4 m Fikirtepe deposits).
🇿🇦 South Africa · Rock art
Drakensberg uKhahlamba Rock Art
Later Stone Age ~4000 BP–1800 CE · San (Bushman) hunter-gatherer
35,000 San paintings in 600 Drakensberg shelters - shamanic eland dance archive.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Uruk Anu Ziggurat — Warka
Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age, Uruk period (4000–3000 BCE) · Sumerian (Ubaid–Uruk–Jemdet Nasr)
The Anu Ziggurat at Uruk-Warka is the oldest known true ziggurat (≈4000 BCE), a massive mudbrick terrace 21 m high in the Anu district. The famed White Temple (c.3500–3000 BCE) sat on summit.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Ziggurat of Ur
Ur III (Neo-Sumerian) 2112–2094 BCE core; Old Babylonian veneer · Sumerian (Ur III)
Best preserved neo-Sumerian ziggurat: three-stage mudbrick massif 62.5 × 43 m base, 30 m high (reconstructed), built by Ur-Nammu (2112–2095 BCE) and Shulgi for moon god Nanna (Sîn), with three…
🇯🇴 Jordan · Hydraulic works
Wadi Faynan — Khirbat Faynan
Chalcolithic to Byzantine (4500 BCE+) · Chalcolithic
Wadi Faynan — Khirbat Faynan in Aqaba Governorate, Wadi Araba, Jordan is a Chalcolithic to Byzantine (4500 BCE+) hydraulic attributed to Chalcolithic culture.
🇨🇳 China · Ancient city
Capital Cities and Tombs of the Ancient Koguryo Kingdom (Ji'an)
Koguryo Kingdom 37 BCE–668 CE (Five Kingdoms period) – tombs 4th–7th c · Koguryo (proto-Korean in Manchuria)
Forty tombs of Koguryo Kingdom (37 BCE–668 CE) on Yalu, including General's Tomb (400 CE) – 31 m stepped pyramid of cut granite 12 layers recalling Mesoamerican form, and murals of lotus, hunting and…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Submerged site
Tell of Painted Ware Submerged 49 — Turkey Region 1
Period Neolithic · Regional culture Submerged-Variant
Tell of Painted Ware Submerged 49 — Turkey Region 1 in Turkey Region 1, Turkey is a Neolithic submerged-city with stratified deposits and regional significance.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Necropolis
Abusir Necropolis
Old Kingdom, 5th Dynasty (mainly); Early Dynastic to Late Period · Ancient Egyptian (Memphite)
Abusir (Egyptian pr wsjr, 'House of Osiris'; Arabic Abu Sir) is the Fifth Dynasty royal necropolis on the Western Desert plateau edge between Giza and Saqqara, part of the Memphis and its Necropolis…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Pyramid
Pyramid of Nyuserre
Old Kingdom, 5th Dynasty, late · Ancient Egyptian
Last and most intact royal pyramid at Abusir: Nyuserre's complex with L-shaped mortuary temple, bent co-opted causeway and cult pyramid, excavated by Borchardt 1902-04.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Tomb
Mastaba of Ptahshepses
Old Kingdom, 5th Dynasty · Ancient Egyptian
Vast multi-phase mastaba of Ptahshepses, vizier and son-in-law of Nyuserre — the largest non-royal tomb of the Old Kingdom, famed for its pillared court and painted reliefs.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Earthwork
Withy Bed Copse Trackway
Late Bronze Age 902 BCE · Late Bronze Age Somerset Levels herders
Late Bronze Age hurdle trackway (902 BCE, 450 m) at Withy Bed Copse, Shapwick Heath — Late Bronze revival of Levels tradition.
🇮🇷 Iran · Rock art
Behistun (Bisotun) Inscription of Darius I
Achaemenid Empire (Darius I) to Sassanian · Achaemenid Persian; Parthian Arsacid; Sassanian
522 BCE Darius trilingual on cliff 66 m high — cuneiform Rosetta for decipherment, Parthian–Sassanian roadside fringe.
🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Besnagar
Mauryan–Sunga–Satavahana–Gupta 600 BCE–500 CE · Magadhan → Sunga → Satavahana → Gupta
Ancient Vesanagara city mound at Betwa-Bes confluence — Sunga–Satavahana twin capital of Vidisha (600 BCE–500 CE).
🇵🇰 Pakistan · Hydraulic works
Bir-Kot Ghundai Canal
Late Bronze to Indo-Greek (Gandhara) 1400 BCE - 200 CE · Gandhara Grave Culture to Indo-Greek
Late Bronze rock-cut canal (3 km, 4 m wide, 1390 BCE) diverting Swat River to Bir-Kot Ghundai Indo-Greek city.
🇩🇪 Germany · Archaeological wonder
Nebra Sky Disk Findspot – Mittelberg Hill
Early Bronze Age Únětice (1600–1550 BCE deposition) · Únětice (Unetice) Bronze Age chiefdom
1600 BCE hoard findspot of the Nebra Sky Disk—Bronze Age astronomic gold-leaf cosmogram.
🇨🇳 China · Ancient village
Tianluoshan
Hemudu culture 6500–5000 BCE (Early → Middle → Late Hemudu) · Hemudu (Lower Yangzi Neolithic, Austroasiatic? → later Wu-Yue)
Hemudu culture waterlogged village (c.6500–5000 BCE, 7000–5800 cal BP) in Yuyao, Zhejiang — 3 ha Neolithic settlement between two hills 7 km northeast of Hemudu, excavated 2004–07 by Zhejiang…