🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Ile-Ife
Yoruba Early/Middle Period (1st mill.–16th c; classical 12th–15th c) · Yoruba (Ifè)
Yoruba city producing hyper-naturalistic brass heads and potsherd pavements with unique locally-made High-Lime glass beads.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Archaeological wonder
Nok Culture Sites (Taruga & Jemaa)
Late Neolithic to Early Iron Age (1500 BCE–500 CE; comparable to Carthage early) · Nok Culture (unknown language; possibly proto-Benue-Congo)
500 BCE terracotta heads with triangular eyes and elaborate coiffures plus earliest West African iron furnaces (13 at Taruga 700–400 BCE).
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Archaeological wonder
Samun Dukiya (Nok satellite)
Nigerian Iron Age (1500 BCE–500 CE) · Nok
Waterlogged pit yielding 25 in-situ Nok heads 900 BCE–500 CE and early 550 BCE iron knives.
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan · Temple complex
Khalchayan
Yuezhi 130–30 BCE → Early Kushan 30 BCE–50 CE → Kushan imperial 50–150 CE · Yuezhi–Early Kushan (North Bactria)
Early Kushan palace (50 BCE–50 CE) at Khalchayan near Denau — earliest Kushan princes fresco 2 m and terracotta court before Surkh Kotal.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Maijishan Grottoes
Sixteen Kingdoms to Tang ~384–907 CE · Chinese Buddhist Northern Dynasties
Stacked-cliff wheat-plant-shaped grotto city with 7,200 sculptures on bolted plank galleries.
🇨🇳 China · Pyramid
Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor & Terracotta Army
Qin Dynasty · Qin / Han-precursor
Unopened earthen pyramid mound of Qin Shi Huang (259–210 BCE) with 600 pits, ~8000 terracotta warriors, chariots, weapons protecting subterranean bronze palace described by Sima Qian with mercury…