🇨🇳 China · Rock art
Zuojiang Huashan Ningming — Luoyue Serpent Cliff
Warring States to Eastern Han (403 BCE – 220 CE) · Luoyue (proto-Zhuang) Boyue culture
Serpent-bend cliff with dragon and drum motifs 8 km upstream from main panel.
🇲🇦 Morocco · Ancient city
Volubilis
Mauretanian to Early Islamic (3rd c BCE Berber settlement; Roman 25 BCE–285 CE; Idrisid 788 CE) · Mauretanian / Roman / Berber / Early Islamic (Idrisid)
Roman Mauretania Tingitana capital with 42 ha walled city, Volubilis preserves 2nd–3rd c town: Decumanus Maximus 400 m, Forum, Capitol, Basilica, Arch of Caracalla (217 CE erected for Caracalla and…
🇦🇺 Australia · Archaeological wonder
Budj Bim Cultural Landscape
Gunditjmara continuous 6,600–6,000 BCE to present (dated 6,700 BP Muldoon trap) · Gunditjmara Aboriginal Australian
Gunditjmara aquaculture over 6,600 years on Budj Bim basalt lava flow (30,000-year-old volcano) with 750 m of stone channels, weirs and eel traps (kooyang) manipulating Lake Condah wetlands.
🇲🇱 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…
🇸🇪 Sweden · Ancient city
Hovgården on Adelsö – Birka Royal Estate
Vendel Period to Middle Ages (c.600–1279 CE) · Scandinavian Viking Age to Medieval
Royal estate on Adelsö opposite Birka, with thing mound (Skansberget), harbour, cemetery and ruins of Magnus Ladulås' brick palace Alsnö Hus (1279).
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Susa
Neolithic to Medieval (c.4200 BCE–1218 CE; Elamite capital c.2700–646 BCE; Achaemenid palace 522–331 BCE) · Elamite / Persian Achaemenid / Seleucid / Parthian / Sassanian
Elamite capital then Achaemenid administrative capital (Darius I, 522 BCE), Susa preserves mound sequence from 4200 BCE: Apadana of Darius (36 limestone columns, glazed brick friezes of Immortals and…
🇪🇹 Ethiopia · Megalith
Tiya Megalithic Stelae Field
Solomonic or late pre-Christian (~1200–1400 CE; contested to 1000 BCE) · Gurage / Sidamo (Ethio-Semitic, Southern Ethiopian megalithic)
One of 160 stelae fields in the Soddo region containing 36 standing pillars, 32 of which are sculpted with swords, paired circles and enigmatic leaf-like motifs up to 3.64 m high.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Hatra
Parthian to Sassanian (c.200 BCE–241 CE) · Parthian-Arab (Hatrene Aramaic) / Hellenistic influence
Fortified Parthian-Arab desert city (2nd c BCE–241 CE) with circular walls 6.4 km circuit resisting Trajan (117) and Septimius Severus (198).
🇮🇩 Indonesia · Temple complex
Borobudur
Medang Kingdom Sailendra 780–835 CE · Mahayana Buddhist under Sailendra dynasty central Java
World's largest Buddhist Mandala mountain with 72 latticed stupas.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Newark Earthworks
Hopewell culture 100 BCE–500 CE · Hopewell (Adena descended, Algonquian? cohort)
Hopewell giant geometric enclosures marking 18.6-yr lunar cycle.
🇳🇦 Namibia · Rock art
Twyfelfontein Rock Engravings
Late Stone Age to early pastoral (6000 BCE – 1000 CE) · San hunter-gatherer (Ju/'hoansi ancestors)
Namibia's sole UNESCO World Heritage site besides Brandberg, Twyfelfontein holds over 2,500 engravings pecked into a 600-m sandstone outcrop of Etjo formation.
🇸🇾 Syria · Archaeological wonder
Krak des Chevaliers
Crusader to Mamluk (11th c Kurdish fort; Hospitaller 1142–1271; Mamluk after 1271) · Kurdish / Frankish (Hospitaller) / Mamluk
Paradigmatic concentric Crusader castle, Krak des Chevaliers was built by Kurdish emir and expanded by Knights Hospitaller 1142–1271.
🇦🇺 Australia · Archaeological wonder
Lake Mungo National Park (Willandra Lakes)
Willandra 50,000–10,000 BCE occupation (Mungo Man 40,000 BP OSL roughly 1999/2003) · Paakantyi / Ngyiampaa / Mutthi Mutthi ancestors; Paakantyi contemporary traditional owners
Dry lake lunette crescent 30 km "Walls of China" with 40,000-year occupation revealing Mungo Man (1969, oldest cremation ~40,000 BP with ochred burial) and Mungo Lady (1968 cremation recalcined).
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia · Ancient city
Hegra
Lihyan to Nabataean to Roman Arabia Petraea · Nabataean Arab
Second capital of Nabataean kingdom after Petra (1st c. BCE–106 CE), with 131 rock-cut monumental tombs with decorated façades (Qasr al-Farid loner tomb iconic), Nabataean Aramaic inscriptions…
🇰🇷 South Korea · Archaeological wonder
Hwaseong Fortress (Suwon)
Joseon Dynasty 1794–1796 CE · Joseon Korean (Jeongjo)
5.52 km bastioned city wall (1794–1796) built by King Jeongjo to honor father Prince Sado and establish new capital, combining Korean, Chinese and Western bastion design via Silhak scholar Jeong…
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Dazu Rock Carvings
Tang to Southern Song ~650–1252 CE · Chinese esoteric Buddhist (Tang–Song)
50,000 Tantric cliff sculptures — China's last Buddhist rock-cut synthesis at Baoding.
🇫🇷 France · Temple complex
Taputapuātea Marae Complex
Early Marae 1000–1500 CE classical Polynesian (peak 1350–1773) · Polynesian / Ra'iātean (Ma'ohi)
Polynesia's most sacred marae center (1000–1773 CE) on 31 ha lagoon peninsula tip Taputapuatea, with 60×45 m marae Taputapuatea (stone national marae) and 16 other marae including Hauviri and Opoa,…
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Sanchi Stupa Complex
Maurya to Gupta, 3rd c. BCE–5th c. CE, Great Stupa Ashoka 260 BCE expanded 2nd c. BCE · Buddhist (Maurya, Shunga, Satavahana, Gupta)
Ashokan hemispherical stupa with four sculpted torana gateways - genesis of Buddhist architecture.
🇨🇳 China · Archaeological wonder
Badaling Great Wall
Ming Dynasty 1505 (Jiajing) rebuild over Northern Qi core · Ming Han Chinese
Best-preserved Ming Great Wall pass (1505) at 1,015 m Juyongguan defile north of Beijing, 7.8 m high crenellated brick-stone ramparts with 19 watchtowers, widened for five horses abreast and beacon…
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Pattadakal Temple Complex
Early Chalukya 7th–8th century CE, peak 740–760 CE · Hindu (Shaiva, Vaishnava) under Chalukya Vikramaditya II
Chalukya structural temples laboratory fusing Nagara and Dravida shikhara styles.
🇨🇳 China · Archaeological wonder
Forbidden City (Imperial Palace, Beijing)
Ming to Qing 1406–1420 construction, occupied 1420–1912 CE · Ming / Qing Chinese imperial
Ming-Qing imperial palace (1420–1912, 961 buildings, 9,999 rooms) occupying 72 ha within Beijing's inner city, the world's largest wooden palace ensemble.
🇮🇷 Iran · Hydraulic works
Qanat of Gonabad
Achaemenid to Sassanian (~700 BCE – 300 CE) · Persian (Achaemenid, Sassanian)
Possibly the oldest and deepest qanat in Iran, the Qasabeh Qanat of Gonabad extends 33 km with a mother-well 300 m deep — the deepest vertical shaft ever hand-dug.
🇱🇰 Sri Lanka · Ancient city
Sacred City of Anuradhapura
Anuradhapura Period 377 BCE–1017 CE (peak 1st–10th c CE) · Sinhalese Theravada Buddhist (Anuradhapura Kingdom)
Sinhalese capital for 1,400 years (377 BCE–1017 CE) and great Theravada monastic center with three 4th–2nd c BCE brick dagabas among tallest premodern structures: Jetavanaramaya (originally 122 m,…
🇲🇳 Mongolia · Megalith
Deer Stones of the Mongolian Plateau
Late Bronze Age (~1400–700 BCE) · Karakhush / Deer Stone–Khirigsuur culture (Bronze-Age pastoralist)
Over 1,200 granite stelae across Mongolia present stylized reindeer in airborne gallop covering the stone from antler to hoof, interspersed with suns, daggers and human face-belts marking the waist.