🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Nippur
Ubaid to Islamic · Sumerian → Akkadian → Babylonian → Kassite
Holy city of Sumer and Akkad, seat of Enlil (Lord Air) whose Ekur temple gave legitimacy to kingship — 'king without Nippur is no king'.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Bubastis – Tell Basta (Cult of Bastet)
Old Kingdom to Late Antiquity (4th Dyn – 4th c. CE) · Egyptian (Delta Libyan dynasties)
Bastet cat-goddess capital – island red-granite temple and 100,000 cat mummies on 14 m tell.
🇮🇱 Israel · Submerged site
Caesarea Maritima – Herod's Sebastos Harbour
Herodian to Crusader (22 BCE – 1265 CE) · Judean / Roman / Byzantine / Crusader
Herod's colossal Roman harbour Sebastos now submerged 5 m; one of earliest hydraulic-concrete harbours.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Myra and Andriake
Classical Lycian to Byzantine · Lycian → Hellenistic Greek → Roman → Byzantine
Lycian cliff-tomb metropolis of St Nicholas with river theatre and purple-dye port granary.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Sais (Sa el-Hagar)
Predynastic to Greco-Roman to Medieval · Egyptian (Libyan → Saite renaissance → Persian)
Cult centre of Neith and capital of 26th (Saite) Dynasty (664–525 BCE) — Egypt's Late Period renaissance metropolis that reconquered to Aswan and traded with Greeks at Naukratis.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Pyramid
Río Bec Structure V-N Pyramid (Central Plaza)
Late Classic Maya (Río Bec) · Maya (Río Bec)
Type-site false-tower pyramid Structure V-N at Río Bec — 8 m solid-tower platform pyramid c.650–850 CE anchoring 100-structure Río Bec city.
🇬🇷 Greece · Submerged site
Atalante (Opus) – Sunken Lokrian City after 426 BCE Earthquake
Mycenaean to Late Roman (Opus Mycenaean – 426 BCE drown) · Locrian Greek / Mycenaean / Classical
426 BCE quake drowned Lokrian Opus — harbour mole and isthmus now 3–4 m down off Atalanti island.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Tell Ahmar
Middle Bronze Age to Roman (c.1800 BCE–200 CE), peak Iron Age–Assyrian · Hittite → Neo-Hittite Luwian → Neo-Assyrian
Euphrates terrace city 35 ha (Hittite Masuwari → Assyrian Til Barsip, D-shaped walls, Hypogeum).
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Chinguetti
Medieval to Early Modern (13th–19th c; library peak 17th–18th c) · Berber / Arab / Alkhalid
13th c scholar-ksar with 20-m square minaret and 5 manuscript libraries 1400+ codices.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Kulubá
Late–Terminal Classic · Maya (Eastern Yucatan Chenes–Puuc)
Newly revealed palace city (600–1050 CE) SE of Tizimín — 55-m-long Group C palace.
🇮🇱 Israel · Tell
Tel Dan
Neolithic to Iron Age/Crusader (peak Middle Bronze to Iron II, 2000–733 BCE) · Canaanite (Sidonian) → Israelite (Dan tribe) → Aramaean → Israelite kingdom → Assyrian
Bubbling Jordan spring tell with world's oldest intact triple mudbrick arch (1750 BCE) and House of David stele.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Vichama Pyramid Complex (Huaura)
Late Preceramic (Norte Chico late to crisis) · Norte Chico / Caral-related (Vichama culture)
Late Preceramic city Vichama (3800–1700 BCE) Huaura Valley: 28 m Building A pyramid famed for 1700 BCE drought/starvation friezes gaping figures — Late Preceramic collapse mural.
🇩🇿 Algeria · Ancient city
Rapidum (Djouab)
Roman to Byzantine (122-431 CE; peak 2nd-3rd c CE) · Roman military
Plateau fort Rapidum.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Archaeological wonder
Wadi Faynan (Feynan)
Chalcolithic – Roman (peaks: Chalcolithic, Iron Age–Roman Edom/Phaino) · Chalcolithic miners to Edomite–Nabataean–Roman (Phaino)
30-km copper valley (4500 BCE–400 CE) — mines, slag heaps and Roman Phaino mining town.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
La Corona (Sak Nikte') Pyramids
Maya Late Classic · Maya Sak Nikte' under Calakmul Kanul
Former looters' Site Q identified as Sak Nikte' (La Corona) 658–835 CE: 14 m Main Plaza pyramid and returned Hieroglyphic Stairway panels of Calakmul dynastic wars.
🇺🇦 Ukraine · Submerged site
Olbia Pontica – Submerged Lower Town
Archaic to Medieval (646 BCE – 4th c. CE; revisited 14th c.) · Milesian Greek / Scythian / Roman / Gothic
Milesian Black Sea emporium whose harbour lower town now lies 1–4 m under Bug–Dnieper liman.
🇹🇿 Tanzania · Ancient city
Stone Town of Zanzibar
Swahili to Omani and British (Swahili settlement 16th c; Omani capital 1832–1964) · Swahili / Omani Arab / Persian / Indian (Bohra) / British colonial
Swahili stone town capital of Omani Zanzibar sultanate (1832–1964), Stone Town preserves coral-stone labyrinth: House of Wonders (Beit al-Ajaib 1883 Persian-slave-built), Old Fort (Portuguese 1710),…
🇦🇲 Armenia · Ancient city
Dvin — Ancient Capital of Armenia
Late Antiquity to Medieval (4th–13th century; peak 7th–10th) · Arsacid Armenia → Sasanian marzpan → Arab Dabil emirate → Bagratuni → Seljuk
100 ha medieval Silk Road capital — trilobed palace, glazed-market vault and ceramic aqueduct.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan
Late Postclassic Aztec (Mexica) · Mexica (Aztec) Triple Alliance
Dual shrine pyramid (Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, 1325–1519 CE) — heart of island city Tenochtitlan (population 200,000 in 1519, larger than most European capitals on Lake Texcoco), built in seven…
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Holmul (Witzná) Triadic Pyramids
Maya Preclassic to Late Classic · Maya (Kanul? Witzná polity)
Holmul Witzná (800 BCE–900 CE): Preclassic 20 m Great Pyramid with Classic triadic frieze Building N (8 m stucco masks, feathered serpent) — longest stratified Maya sequence.
🇹🇳 Tunisia · Ancient city
Belalis Maior
Numidian to Byzantine (3rd c. BCE–7th c. CE; peak 2nd–5th c. CE) · Numidian / Roman / Byzantine
Belalis Maior (Henchir el-Faouar) dominates a platform 8 km northeast of Béja, a fertile Tell city excavated by Mahjoubi since 1960. Revealed: monumental capitol (peripteral), Byzantine citadel 6th c.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
El Perú-Waka' Pyramids
Maya Classic · Maya Waka' kingdom (Calakmul ally)
Maya royal city Waka' (El Perú) above San Juan River: 18 m Stela Plaza north pyramid, tomb of Lady K'abel (Stela 34) Kalakmul queen, 250–900 CE.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Çavuştepe
Urartian Kingdom late 8th century BCE · Urartian (Biainili)
Twin-ridge Urartian palatial city of Sarduri II with Haldi temple and 5 km Urartian canal.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Oymaağaç Höyük (ancient Nerik)
Early Bronze to Iron Age (3000–600 BCE; peak Hittite Empire 1400–1180 BCE) · Hattian → Hittite → Kaška → Phrygian
Holy city Nerik — storm-god temple over sacred spring tunnel, lost to Kaška then re-excavated.