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Tagsunesco
291 places carry this tag, across every kind and continent it appears in.
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Pallava Dynasty 580–728 CE (Mamalla and Rajasimha phases) · Tamil / Pallava Hindu (Shaiva/Vaishnava)
Pallava (7th–8th c CE) coastal temple town with 40 rock-cut shrines: Shore Temple granite seaside, Five Rathas monolithic chariot-temples cut from single boulders, Arjuna's Penance 27 m bas-relief,…
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan · Ancient city
Parthian Arsacid 3rd c BCE–3rd c CE (peak 1st c BCE–1st c CE) · Parthian / Arsacid
Parthian ceremonial and administrative capital (3rd c BCE–3rd c CE) of two tells: Old Nisa (Mithridatkert fortress 14 ha with 43 towers, wine rhytons and ivory rhytons inscribed Arsacid) and New Nisa…
🇰🇭 Cambodia · Temple complex
Khmer Empire, early Angkor period 1113–1150 CE · Khmer (Hindu then Theravada Buddhist)
Vishnuite then Buddhist temple-mountain and world's largest religious monument (162.6 ha), built early 12th century by Suryavarman II as state temple and center of Khmer Empire; oriented west with…
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Mauryan 260 BCE to Pala 12th c CE; temple late Gupta 5th–6th c · Indian Buddhist (Mauryan → Gupta → Pala)
Holiest Buddhist site where Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment c.528 BCE under Bodhi Tree descendant.
🇮🇹 Italy · Temple complex
Archaeic-Classical Greek 6th–5th c. BCE, peak 480–406 BCE · Greek (Doric Greeks from Gela/Rhodes-Crete)
Greek city ridge with best-preserved Doric temple in world: Concordia.
🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates · Hydraulic works
Iron Age to present ~1000 BCE–present · Omani/Hafit to UAE bedouin oases
Al Ain 3,000-year aflaj-fed palm oasis irrigating 147,000 palms with time-share water law.
🇨🇳 China · Ancient city
Late Shang Dynasty c.1300–1046 BCE (Anyang period) · Shang Chinese
Late Shang capital (1300–1046 BCE) on Huan River, premier Bronze Age urban site of East Asia covering 30 km² with palatial foundations, royal tombs (Fu Hao intact 76), 150,000 oracle bones with…
🇵🇰 Pakistan · Ancient city
Gandhara 6th c BCE–5th c CE (Achaemenid to late Kushan) · Gandharan / multi-empire (Persian, Greek, Buddhist)
Palimpsest city spanning Gandhara civilization 6th c BCE–5th c CE with three successive cities (Bhir Mound, Sirkap, Sirsukh) and Buddhist monastery complex Dharmarajika.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Late Archaic 1700–1100 BCE (peak 1500–1200 BCE) · Poverty Point culture
Late Archaic earthwork complex (1700–1100 BCE) with six concentric C-shaped ridges (1.2 km outer diameter) and six mounds, including 22 m-high Mound A – one of largest Archaic earthworks in North…
🇨🇳 China · Archaeological wonder
Warring States to Han Dynasty 7th c BCE – 220 CE (early segments); Ming 1368–1644 (classic brick) · Han Chinese (Qin, Han dynasties)
World's longest wall system (21,196 km including branches) with earliest rammed-earth frontier walls from Warring States and Han (7th c BCE–2nd c CE) preserved in Gansu corridor (Han Dunhuang walls),…
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Rock art
Bronze Age to Turkic (1400 BCE – 800 CE) · Andronovo to Saka to Turkic
Ridgetop with shaman drum and deer-headdress plus Saka kurgans.
🇨🇳 China · Temple complex
Sixteen Kingdoms to Yuan 366–1368 CE (peak Tang 618–907) · Multi-ethnic Buddhist (Han, Tibetan, Uyghur, Sogdian)
492 temple caves on 1.7 km Mingsha cliff with 2,000 painted sculptures and 45,000 m² murals spanning 366–1368 CE (Sixteen Kingdoms to Yuan).
🇨🇳 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…
🇫🇲 Federated States of Micronesia · Archaeological wonder
Saudeleur Dynasty 1200–1500 CE; construction ~1180–1628 · Pohnpeian / Saudeleur
Abandoned basalt-and-coral city covering 18 km² of reef flats southeast of Pohnpei with ~92 artificial islets bounded by sea walls and tidal canals, with walls up to 8 m high built from columnar…
🇹🇭 Thailand · Temple complex
Ayutthaya Period 1351–1767 CE · Siamese / Thai (Ayutthayan)
Ruins of second Siamese capital (1351–1767) on an island at confluence of Chao Phraya rivers, with prang-pattern temples like Wat Mahathat (Buddha head in tree roots), Wat Phra Si Sanphet and Wat…
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Satavahana early phase 200 BCE–100 CE; Vakataka renaissance 460–480 CE · Buddhist (Hinayana → Mahayana)
Thirty horseshoe-gorge rock-cut caves overlooking Waghora River with exquisite murals and sculptures: early 2nd century BCE–1st century CE Hinayana phase and later 460–480 CE Mahayana phase under…
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Late classical: Kalachuri, Chalukya, Rashtrakuta periods 600–1000 CE · Buddhist, Hindu (Shaiva), Jain under Rashtrakuta patronage
Largest rock-cut monastery-temple complex in world with 34 caves carved 600–1000 CE into basalt Charanandri Hills: 12 Buddhist, 17 Hindu, 5 Jain, including monolithic Kailasa Temple (Cave 16)…
🇲🇲 Myanmar · Temple complex
Pagan Kingdom 1044–1287 CE (Bagan period 11th–13th century) · Bamar / Burmese Buddhist (Theravada)
Sacred landscape on Irrawaddy River bend with over 2,200 surviving Buddhist temples, stupas and monasteries from 11th–13th century Pagan Kingdom; at peak >10,000 structures, including Ananda,…
🇵🇪 Peru · Archaeological wonder
Late Horizon (Inca Imperial, ~1450–1530 CE) · Inca (Quechua)
15th-century Inca citadel perched at 2,430 m on a narrow saddle between Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu peaks above the Urubamba Valley.
🇺🇸 United States · Archaeological wonder
Pueblo II–III 850–1250 CE (Chacoan fluorescence 1020–1140) · Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) / Chacoan
Chacoan canyon with 15 monumental Great Houses (Pueblo Bonito 650 rooms, 35 kivas) and engineered roads, built 850–1150 CE by Ancestral Puebloans as ritual and trade center for San Juan Basin,…
🇰🇪 Kenya · Ancient village
Late Iron Age · Bantu / Luo (Kabwa)
Largest of 138 Lake Victoria dry-stone enclosures (15th–19th c), UNESCO 2018. Concentric walls 1–4.2 m high ×51–152 m diam with internal compounds, shafts, and livestock pens.
🇧🇴 Bolivia · Archaeological wonder
Formative to Tiwanaku Period 300–1000 CE (flourishing 500–950) · Tiwanaku Empire
Capital of Tiwanaku Empire (300–1000 CE) on Altiplano near Lake Titicaca at 3,850 m, featuring Akapana pyramid, Kalasasaya enclosure, and Gateway of the Sun carved from single andesite blocks…
🇱🇦 Laos · Megalith
Iron Age 500 BCE – 500 CE (some lids to 800 CE) · Unknown Austroasiatic? Ancestors of Lao-Tai
Megalithic landscape of >90 sites with >2,100 large carved sandstone jars (1–3 m tall, up to 14 t) scattered across Xiangkhouang plateau, carved 500 BCE–500 CE, associated with mortuary rites and…
🇵🇪 Peru · Geoglyph
Early Intermediate Period, Paracas to Nazca culture · Paracas / Nazca
Over 300 geometric and figurative geoglyphs etched by removing dark desert pavement to reveal light subsoil across 450 km² of arid Pampas, including 1.8 km hummingbird, monkey, spider, and trapezoids…
