🇨🇳 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.
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The catalogue
13,227 places to sift through. Narrow by kind, country, period or how firmly each one is established — contested and pseudoarchaeological claims are labelled here, never hidden.
🇨🇳 China · Archaeological wonder
Warring States to Han (~300 BCE – 100 CE; debated) · Yue / early Han Chinese
Twenty-four enormous man-made siltstone caverns rediscovered in 1992 after 2,000 years of siltation, each a single chamber 10–30 m high hewn with chisels that left uniform parallel tooling covering…
🇨🇾 Cyprus · Submerged site
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
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.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tomb
Old to Middle Kingdom (2700–1800 BCE) · Old–New Kingdom Egyptian
Mausoleum of Halicarnassus — North Frieze Predicted (Bodrum) in Muğla, Bodrum, Mausoleum, Turkey is a Old to Middle Kingdom (2700–1800 BCE) tomb attributed…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Archaeological wonder
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…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Temple complex
Middle Kingdom, 12th Dynasty c.1860–1814 BCE · Ancient Egyptian (Amenemhat III)
Herodotus's 3000-room labyrinth beside Faiyum now rubble field.
🇯🇵 Japan · Ancient village
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
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
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
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
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
Later Stone Age ~4000 BP–1800 CE · San (Bushman) hunter-gatherer
35,000 San paintings in 600 Drakensberg shelters - shamanic eland dance archive.
🇹🇳 Tunisia · Ancient city
Numidian / Punic / Roman / Byzantine · Numidian / Roman
Cliff-top Venus cult city of Numidia–Rome, now kasbah-crowned El Kef.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
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
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
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.
🇪🇸 Spain · Ancient city
Chalcolithic (3200–2200 BCE) · Los Millares (Iberian Chalcolithic)
Almería's Copper Age capital excavated by L. Siret 1891, with 13 hill forts, 80 tholos tombs with eye-idols and copper tools.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Earthwork
Early Neolithic (3700–3400 BCE) · Early Neolithic
Dorset's flagship causewayed enclosure excavated by Mercer 1974–86, with human skull deposits and later Stepleton enclosure.
🇨🇳 China · Ancient city
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…
🇵🇹 Portugal · Archaeological wonder
Claimed 9600 BCE Atlantis (plateau 5–10 Ma) · Pseudo Donnelly / Ocean drilling
Azores 1–2 km deep plateau claimed Atlantis — DSDP Leg 37 shows 5–10 Ma spreading Recorded context — Period: Claimed 9600 BCE Atlantis (plateau 5–10 Ma); Culture: Pseudo Donnelly / Ocean drilling;…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Submerged site
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
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
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.
🇾🇪 Yemen · Temple complex
The Great Mosque of Sana'a (Arabic: الجامع الكبير بصنعاء, al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr bi-Ṣanʿāʾ) is an ancient mosque in Sana'a, Yemen, and one of the oldest mosques in the world.
