🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Dime es-Sobai (Soknopaiou Nesos)
Ptolemaic to Roman (3rd c BCE–3rd c CE) · Ptolemaic / Roman Egyptian
Lake Qarun crocodile temple town Dime es-Sobai with 320-m lion dromos to harbour.
✓Verified
Search places, or jump to a section
CategoriesTemple complexes
Sacred precincts, sanctuaries and the architecture of ritual.
🇩🇰 Denmark · Ancient city
Roman Iron Age → Migration 200–700 (Funen central place peak 300–500) · Funen Iron Age (Fyn central place; pre-Danish Gutar, ‘god's home’ sanctuary)
Gudme (Gudmehjem ‘God's Home’, Gudme–Lundeborg) — Iron Age central-place and beach market (Roman Iron Age 200–500 → Vendel 500–700, peak 300–500 Gundestrup?
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Ptolemaic to Roman (3rd c BCE–3rd c CE) · Ptolemaic / Roman Egyptian
Lake Qarun crocodile temple town Dime es-Sobai with 320-m lion dromos to harbour.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Hellenistic · Hekatomnid Carian, Hellenistic
Lake Bafa gneiss city with 6.5-km Hellenistic walls and 3rd BCE Athena temple above Endymion grotto.
🇪🇨 Ecuador · Ancient city
Late Horizon Inca (c.1470–1532 CE) – Cañari antecedents · Inca (Tupaq Yupanki – Wayna Qhapaq) over Cañari
Pumapungo is the Inca palace-garden quarter of Tomebamba, Wayna Qhapaq's planned northern capital in modern Cuenca at 2,550 m.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Northern Dynasties to Tang · Northern Qi–Tang northern Shanxi Buddhist
Taiyuan Heavenly Dragon western 8-cave extension 560–750 with 1924 removal and scaffolding holes.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Northern Dynasties (Northern Qi imperial) · Northern Qi Imperial Buddhist (Ye capital Gao clan)
Qi royal 9-cave north cluster 550–577 North Cave Buddha with 1909 Freer looting and 3D reunion.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Temple complex
Epiclassic – Postclassic (c.530–1040 CE) Bajío – Otomi–Toltec: Lerma tradition · Lerma – Bajío / Otomi
Cañada de la Virgen in the Laja valley saddle near San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, is a mountaintop Epiclassic observatory-city (530–1040 CE) of the Bajío–Otomi tradition at 1,950 m.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Temple complex
New Kingdom to Roman (1479 BCE–235 CE; freestanding temple essentially Augustan) · Egyptian / Nubian
Augustan New Kalabsha — Nubia's largest freestanding temple (76 m) to Mandulis saved from Nasser.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Hellenistic to Antonine (Mylasan Karia) · Carian Greek (Mylasa sphere, later Roman)
Carian olive-grove Corinthian 6×11 with 16 columns upright to architrave, dedication to Zeus Lepsynos.
🇰🇭 Cambodia · Temple complex
Angkorian Bayon period 1181–1218 CE (Mahayana Buddhist imperial) · Khmer (Angkorian Mahayana Buddhist)
Vast Jayavarman VII Buddhist–Hindu temple city (c.1181–1218 CE) in Banteay Meanchey — 9 km² walled complex (outer laterite wall 1.9×1.7 km) enclosing 4.6 ha central temple with enigmatic Bayon-style…
🇨🇳 China · Temple complex
Northern Wei (Northern Dynasties) · Northern Wei royal Buddhist (Toba Wei imperial atelier under Tanyao)
13.7-m open-fronted seated Buddha of Yungang's Five Tanyao west series — most iconic Wei colossus.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Late Classic (c.400–900 CE) Usumacinta kingdom · Maya (Usumacinta – Pacal's rival)
Yaxchilan (ancient Pa' Chan, cleft sky) crowns a horseshoe meander of the Usumacinta in Chiapas at 120 m, 35 km by river from Frontera Corozal.
🇵🇪 Peru · Archaeological wonder
Early Horizon–Early Intermediate 250–200 BCE (Initial Late Chavín to Wari interstice, Casma-Sechín tradition) · Casma–Sechín / Pampas ( north-central desert, precedent to Moche for Casma valley, not Inca)
Oldest solar observatory in Americas (250–200 BCE): 13 evenly spaced 2–5 m towers on 300 m ridge crest marking annual solar horizon from two enclosed observation pavilions (western fortress hill and…
🇲🇽 Mexico · Temple complex
Postclassic (c.1200–1521 CE) Late Postclassic Cozumel–Mayapan league · Maya (East Coast – Cozumel)
San Gervasio (Tantún Cuzamil) is Cozumel island's paramount Late Postclassic pilgrimage capital at 15 m interior, 7 km west of San Miguel, Quintana Roo.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Classical to Hellenistic (Iliadic tradition to 150 BCE) · Aeolian Greek and later Pergamene sphere
Iliad's Mouse-Apollo temple 150 BCE Ionic pseudodipteral with Homeric friezes, Homeric cult.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Temple complex
Ptolemaic to Late Roman (3rd c BCE–7th c CE) · Ptolemaic Egyptian / Greek
Lake Mariout harbour-city Taposiris Magna with Osiris temple and Cleopatra-tunnel.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient port
Postclassic (c.1200–1519 CE) East Coast – Mayapan league; Late Classic hamlet antecedents · Maya (East Coast Coastal)
Xcaret (ancient Polé) is the walled Postclassic port-temple town on a Caribbean caleta 5 km south of Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, at 8 m.
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Mauryan 3rd c BCE → Sunga–Gupta 2nd c BCE–6th c CE · Mauryan → Sunga → Gupta
Sanchi's western gate — 60-stupa Halali cluster with 30 m Great Stupa and Sariputra relics (9 km W).
🇩🇰 Denmark · Ancient city
Migration → Viking Age 550–1100 (Zealand central place Tyr's Lake 600–700) · Zealand Viking Age (Tyr's Lake Tyr sanctuary) — Zealand central place (Fugledegård)
Tissø (Lake Tissø–Fugledegård) — Zealand Viking Age lake central-place (c.550–1100, hall 550–700 peak) on western Zealand lake Tissø island and Fugledegård shore peninsula 12 km southeast Kalundborg.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Hekatomnid to Hellenistic · Hekatomnid Carian, Hellenistic
Karpuzlu 350-m hilltop with 2-column Apollo prostylos and 3-km Hekatomnid walls, Queen Ada's refuge 340 BCE.
🇮🇪 Ireland · Temple complex
Early Medieval (544–1552 CE) · Early Christian Gaelic (Columban tradition)
Great early monastery at Shannon-Esker crossing (544 CE) with cathedral, two round towers, three high crosses and 3,000 graves.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Classical to Late Antiquity (500 BCE – 600 CE) · Aeolian Greek (Kolophonian) and Roman
Kolophon harbour city with Doric Apollo temple facing mother city.
🇩🇪 Germany · Fortress
Early Medieval Slavic 850–1000 (Warnower–Obotrite) · Slavic Warnower/Obotrite (Mecklenburg pagan lake temple)
Gross Raden (Groß Raden Archäologisches Freilichtmuseum) — Slavic island temple-fort (9th–10th c, Slavic rondel 9th c, peak 900–1000) on Rader See lake island 8 km north Sternberg, Mecklenburg lake…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Classical to Hellenistic · Dorian Greek, Knidian
Knidos commercial-harbour Apollo Karneios 4th BCE Dorico-Ionic temple beside Aphrodite's Praxiteles temenos, Tekir Burnu.
