🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Girnavaz
Early Bronze Age to Iron Age (c.3000–600 BCE) · Hurrian → Mittanian → Neo-Assyrian
Nusaybin palatial tell 13 m high (Mitanni–Assyrian palace, Nuzi ware, tablets) on Tigris watershed.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Khafajah
Late Uruk to Old Babylonian (c.3400–1700 BCE; peak Early Dynastic) · Uruk → Jemdet Nasr → Early Dynastic (Akkadian/Sumerian Diyala) → Akkadian → Old Babylonian/Eshnunna
Diyala Sequence key town with 10-phase Sin Temple and Samsuiluna earthquake horizon.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Lambityeco
Classic Xoo 600–850 CE · Zapotec (Xoo phase, Late Classic)
Xoo-phase Zapotec salt palace with Cocijo friezes and tell de sal 140 m salt workshop for Monte Albán tribute.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Sapinuwa
Hittite Empire (c.1600–1200 BCE; peak Sapinuwa 1500–1200 BCE as second capital) · Hittite (Old → Empire)
Sapinuwa (Ortaköy, Çorum) is the Hittite Empire's second capital and military–religious administration — Building A with 3000+ Hittite cuneiform tablets (larges...
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Labraunda Zeus Temple — Karian Sanctuary of Zeus Labraundos
Hekatomnid to Roman (351 BCE – 300 CE) · Hekatomnid Karian to Roman Mylasa
Mountain Zeus sanctuary 680 m with Maussollian androns on sacred way from Milas.
🇵🇸 Palestine · Tell
Tell el-Farah North
Neolithic to Iron Age (c.7000–700 BCE; peak Israelite Tirzah 1000–800 BCE) · Neolithic → Chalcolithic → EB → Israelite (Tirzah, capital to 800) → Assyrian
Tell el-Farah (North) in Tirzah valley (likely biblical Tirzah, capital of Northern Israel before Samaria) with Neolithic village (Lodian) through EB, Middle Br...
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Kültepe-Kanesh
EB to Roman (c.3000 BCE–200 CE; karum 2100–1700 BCE, 22k tablets) · Anatolian → Old Assyrian karum (kārum) → Hittite Kanesh
Kültepe is ancient Kanesh/Nesa — the Assyrian merchant colony (karum) with 22,000 Old Assyrian cuneiform tablets (largest OB archive) documenting bronze–silver...
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Notion Necropolis-Agora — Apollo Claros Necropolis Grid
Archaic to Roman (700 BCE – 300 CE) · Aeolian to Ionian Notians
Necropolis-agora with painted tombs and Apollo sacred way 600 m from temple.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Hagia Sophia
Late Antiquity / Byzantine 532–537 CE, Ottoman additions 1453– · Byzantine Greek to Ottoman Islamic
Justinian's 537 CE dome on pendentives – seminal Byzantine basilica-monsoon turned mosque.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
El-Wad Cave (Mugharet el-Wad)
Middle Palaeolithic to Natufian (c.200 ka–9600 BCE) · Mousterian → Aurignacian → Natufian
Karst cave at the mouth of Nahal Me’arot, type site of the Natufian culture (excavated Dorothy Garrod 1929–1934). 4 m st...
🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Fatehpur Sikri
Mughal 1571–1585 CE · Mughal (Akbar)
Mughal imperial city founded 1571 by Akbar as capital to honor Sufi Salim Chishti, combining Persian, Timurid and Gujarati-Rajasthani architecture in red sandstone.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Gordion
EB to Medieval (c.3000 BCE–1200 CE; peak Phrygia 900–600 BCE) · Hittite → Phrygian (Midas) → Persian → Galatian → Roman
Gordion is the Phrygian capital (Yassıhöyük) — Midas's city (Midas Mound tumulus 53 m), terraced citadel with Phrygian Gate (Ashlar), and 100-tumulus necropolis...
🇧🇩 Bangladesh · Temple complex
Mainamati (Shalban Vihara)
Early Medieval 7th–13th c CE · Buddhist Samatata Chandra dynasty
Mainamati-Lalmai ridge — Buddhist monastic city (7th–13th c CE) 8 km west Comilla, 18 major mounds (Shalban Vihara, Ananda Vihara, Kotila Mura) excavated 1955–73 F.A. Khan.
🇮🇱 Israel · Tell
Tel Miqne-Ekron
MB to Iron Age (c.2000 BCE–700 BCE; Philistine Ekron 1200–604 BCE) · Canaanite → Philistine (Ekron) → Judah → Assyrian
Tel Miqne is Philistine Ekron, one of the Pentapolis (Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath, Gaza). Lower town 20 ha with 110 olive-oil installations (largest ancient o...
🇨🇳 China · Archaeological wonder
Jiayuguan Pass (First Strategic Pass Under Heaven)
Ming Dynasty 1372–1540 CE (major 1484 rebuild) · Ming Han Chinese
Ming western gateway fortress (1372–1540) on Hexi Corridor terminus of Great Wall, 33,500 m² bastioned rammed-earth and brick rectangle abutting Qilian foothills and Black Mountain gorge.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Sardis Artemis Temple — Pactolus Valley Sanctuary of Artemis
Lydian Archaic to Roman (550 BCE – 400 CE) · Lydian to Hellenistic to Roman Sardian
100 m Lydian–Hellenistic Artemis temple on Pactolus gold terrace.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Tell Harmal
Old Babylonian (c.2000–1750 BCE; peak c.1800 BCE) · Isin-Larsa → Old Babylonian (Amorite-Eshnunna)
Best-preserved Old Babylonian planned town (2.25 ha, 150×150 m orthogonal walled) with twin temples (Šara, Bēlet-Agade), admin complex (3000 tablets including a...
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Susa Acropolis
Ubaid to Islamic (c.4200 BCE–1300 CE; peak Elamite–Achaemenid) · Susa I–II → Elamite → Achaemenid → Parthian–Sasanian → Islamic
Elamite and Achaemenid acropolis (14 ha, 25 m high) at Susa, capital of Elam and Darius I winter capital. French excavat...
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Ephesus Arsinoeion-Octagon — Sanctuary Terrace of Arsinoe
Hellenistic to Roman (288 BCE – 262 CE) · Ptolemaic to Roman Ephesian
Curetes terrace with 36 m Arsinoeion rotunda and Octagon princess tomb.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Tell Atchana
EB to LB (c.3400–1200 BCE; peak Level VII palace 1740–1400) · Eblaite → Amorite → Mittani → Hittite
Tell Atchana is ancient Alalakh, capital of Mukish in the Amuq, famous for Level VII palace (Yarim-Lim) with painted frescoes, Level IV palace of Idrimi (statue...
🇦🇫 Afghanistan · Ancient city
Ai Khanoum
Hellenistic Seleucid–Greco-Bactrian 300–145 BCE · Seleucid / Greco-Bactrian (Greek in Central Asia)
Hellenistic polis (c.300–145 BCE) at Oxus confluence, founded by Seleucus I as Alexandria on Oxus, excavated 1964–1979 by French DAFA.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Sarissa
Hittite (c.1600–1180 BCE; peak 1500–1200 as weather-god city) · Hittite (Empire, weather-god cult)
Sarissa (Kuşaklı) on a windswept 1600-m ridge is the Hittite sacred city of the weather-god — planned Hittite city with 2-km wall, dam and granary, built under...
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Pergamon Trajan Temple — Upper Acropolis Traianeum Sanctuary
Hellenistic Attalid to Roman Hadrianic (300 BCE – 130 CE) · Attalid Pergamene to Roman Asia provincial
Upper terrace Trajan–Hadrian Corinthian sanctuary behind Zeus altar.
🇮🇱 Israel · Tell
Tel Batash
MB to Iron Age (c.2000–600 BCE; peak Philistine Timnah c.1200–600) · Canaanite → Philistine (Timnah) → Judah
Tel Batash is biblical Timnah in Sorek Valley — Samson's Timnah (Judges 14) and Philistine border town between Ekron and Gezer. Mazar/Kelm 1977–89 revealed MB g...