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CategoriesTemple complexes
Sacred precincts, sanctuaries and the architecture of ritual.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Chalcolithic to Phrygian (c.4500–700 BCE; peak EB III and Hittite Empire) · Hattian → Hittite (Nesite) → Phrygian
Hattian–Hittite fortified city with Sphinx Gate and Early Bronze royal tombs rich in solar-disk bronzes.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Ubaid to Early Dynastic I (c.5000–2900 BCE; mural is Late Uruk–Jemdet Nasr c.3200 BCE) · Ubaid → Uruk → Jemdet Nasr → Early Dynastic
Painted Temple mound with 3200 BCE leopard mural — first mural art in Mesopotamia.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Old Hittite to Empire (1650–1200 BCE) · Hittite (Hattic substrate)
Old Hittite cult terrace that produced the four-register Inandik vase (acrobats and goddess).
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Late Preceramic–Initial Period 3000–2500 BCE · Marañón Amazon-Andes (Jaén pre-Carral)
5300-year spiral temple in Amazonian Jaén with world's oldest cacao 5300 BP and Maltese cross hearth.
🇸🇾 Syria · Pyramid
Early Bronze to Late Bronze Age (2600–1200 BCE), Amorite–Mitanni · Amorite–Hurrian–Mittanian (Qatna kingdom)
Major Bronze Age kingdom capital (2600–1200 BCE) 100-hectare walled city with 20 m-high Upper City acropolis and famed 150x100 m Late Bronze Age Palace of Qatna (2000–1340 BCE) containing intact…
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Pallava–Pandya Early Medieval · Digambara Jain
Pallava–Pandya Jain cave complex (7th–9th c. CE) on Sittanavasal hillock, famed for Arivar Koil — earliest Tamil rock-cut Jain shrine with natural-cavern-pillared mandapa and Brahmi-Tamil inscription.
🇪🇨 Ecuador · Ancient city
Late Horizon Inca Imperial 1490–1533 CE · Inca (Tomebamba Cañari–Inca)
Huayna Cápac's northern capital second to Cuzco: Pumapungo 40 ha palace, kallanka and 300 m aqueduct under modern Cuenca.
🇰🇭 Cambodia · Temple complex
Angkor Early 967 CE · Hindu Shaiva (Brahmin Yajnavaraha)
Pink sandstone Hindu temple (967 CE) dedicated to Shiva Tribhuvanamaheshvara, built by Brahmin guru Yajnavaraha — only Angkor temple not founded by king — miniature (base 500×500 m laterite…
🇮🇱 Israel · Archaeological wonder
Chalcolithic to Iron Age (~4500 BCE – 800 BCE; peak New Kingdom Egyptian 14th–12th century BCE) · Egyptian New Kingdom, Midianite/Edomite and early Arabah nomadic
Three-sided sandstone valley north of Eilat where 10,000 shafts and 1.5 million tonnes of slag mark one of the world's earliest industrial landscapes.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Pyramid
Epiclassic (Totonac Veracruz) · Totonac (Tajín sphere)
Totonac Tajín-sphere city Yohualichan (600–900 CE): 12 m Pyramid of Niches Ome with 90 niches in Sierra Norte, bridge between El Tajín and highlands.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Bronze Age to Byzantine (peak Antonine 2nd century CE) · Pamphylian Greek → Hellenistic → Roman → Byzantine → Seljuk
Pamphylian city with the world's most intact 15,000-seat Roman theatre (155 CE) and inverted-siphon aqueduct.
🇻🇳 Vietnam · Ancient city
Nguyen dynasty 1802–1945 · Vietnamese (Kinh) Nguyen
Nguyen dynasty capital (1802–1945) and last imperial city of Vietnam inside 10 km vauban-style citadel (Kinh Thanh, 1804–1832, 2.5×2.5 km square with 4 m thick bastioned walls copied from French…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Urartian Kingdom (9th–6th century BCE; later Urartian–Median–Achaemenid–Ottoman) · Urartian (Biainili) → Median → Achaemenid → Ottoman
Urartu's 100 m limestone citadel over Lake Van with royal rock-tombs and Xerxes trilingual.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Temple complex
Iron Age IIB (single-period) · Kingdom of Israel/Judah (Israelite)
Desert Israelite fortress (c.800 BCE) with 'YHWH and his Asherah' inscriptions and Bes frescoes.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Gaochang to Yuan 500–1300 CE · Uyghur Buddhist (ancient Uyghur–Tocharian)
Turpan depression Uyghur Buddhist cliff with 77 donor-portrait caves below sea level.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Ubaid to Ur III (c.5500–2000 BCE; temple sequence defines Chalcolithic Eridu–Ubaid horizon) · Ubaid → Uruk → Early Dynastic → Ur III
Type-site of Ubaid period — 1919 Ninhursag temple with copper bulls gave Chalcolithic its name.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
PPNA to Early PPNB · Upper Tigris PPN (Göbekli sphere northern fringe)
Upper Tigris PPNA village with three T-pillar buildings and skull cult, salvage-saved from Ambar Dam.
🇷🇺 Russia · Ancient city
Caucasian Albania to Sasanian to Islamic (c.100 BCE–19th c.; peak Sasanian 6th c.) · Caucasian Albanian → Sasanian Persian → Khazar → Arab → Shirvanshah → Russian
Sasanian 3.6 km double-wall Caspian Gates with Naryn-Kala citadel sealing Caucasus passage.
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan · Ancient city
Gonur / Togolok phase BMAC 2300–1700 BCE · Bactria–Margiana (Oxus) civilization
BMAC (Bactria–Margiana) monumental temple-fortress (c.2300–1700 BCE) on Murghab alluvium, satellite of Gonur Tepe, built of mud-brick with central fortified court 30×40 m, fire temple, part of Viktor…
🇵🇪 Peru · Ancient city
Late Horizon Inca Resistance 1536–1572 · Inca (Neo-Inca State)
Inca Vilcabamba resistance capital: Rosaspata palace, Yurak Rumi 2.5 m white shrine and Ñusta Hispana.
🇨🇳 China · Archaeological wonder
Western Han Early 202–141 BCE · Han dynasty (Changsha Kingdom)
Family cemetery of Marquess of Dai (Li Cang, Prime Minister of Changsha Kingdom, Western Han, 202 BCE–9 CE) with three rectangular shaft tombs (168–145 BCE).
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Late Classic (Tepeu 2) · Maya (Tikal dynasty)
Tikal Temple VI — 12 m pyramid with 12 m roof comb bearing 180-glyph history text of Tikal 766 CE, SE causeway terminus.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Pyramid
Formative–Epiclassic 800 BCE–950 CE · Apizaco / Tlaxcala tradition (Central Highlands)
Fertility hilltop with Flower Pyramid: 2000 female figurines, spindle whorls and needle offerings on spiral pyramid.
🇸🇩 Sudan · Pyramid
New Kingdom Ramesside (Seti I–Ramesses II, c.1306–1070 BCE) · Egyptian Ramesside colonial with Nubian population
Ramesside Egyptian colonial walled town (Seti I–Ramesses II c.1300 BCE) 130×90 m on west bank at Third Cataract, with viceroy's residence, sandstone temple of Ramesses II, granaries, and cemeteries with pyramidal tombs.
