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The catalogue
2,183 places to sift through. Narrow by kind, country, period or how firmly each one is established — contested and pseudoarchaeological claims are labelled here, never hidden.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Pyramid
Late Classic Maya, c.550-830 CE (Río Bec–Chenés, Late Classic) · Maya (Río Bec)
Becan (Békan) 1.7 km moat-and-earthwork-walled city (Campeche): 25 ha nucleated center unlike dispersed Río Bec — Structure VIII 32 m high Río Bec pyramid with twin solid towers flanking central…
🇵🇪 Peru · Ancient city
Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) · Bronze Age urban
Wiracochapampa — North Compound Wall (Huamachuco, Peru) in La Libertad, Wiracochapampa, Peru is a Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) ancient city at…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Bronze Age to Byzantine (peak Classical Lycian 6th–4th c. BCE and Roman) · Lycian (Anatolian Indo-European) → Persian satrapy → Hellenistic → Roman
Lycian capital Xanthos and marsh sanctuary Letoon — trilingual stele solved Lycian.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) · Bronze Age urban
Xochicalco — Observatory North Vent Shaft (Morelos) in Morelos, Xochicalco, Mexico is a Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) ancient city attributed t…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Late Natufian–PPNA (c.12000–10300 BCE) · Natufian-related → PPNA northern Fertile Crescent
Late Natufian–PPNA mound (45 m diameter, 2 m deep deposits) on the Batman River, excavated by Michael Rosenberg 1990s be...
🇮🇹 Italy · Ancient city
Middle to Late Bronze Age (c.1500–900 BCE) · Nuragic (Middle Bronze Santu Ippolito–Late Bronze Antas)
Nuraghe Palmavera (Middle–Late Bronze Age c.1500–900 BCE) 9 km NW of Alghero by Porto Conte Bay is a two-tower nuraghe (central keep 10 m high tholos plus later 10-m bastion) with a unique meeting…
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) · Bronze Age urban
Teotihuacan — Moon Plaza North Avenue Ancillary in State of Mexico, Teotihuacan, Moon Plaza, Mexico is a Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) ancient …
🇸🇪 Sweden · Ancient city
Late Pre-Roman Iron Age to Viking Age (c.100 BCE–1000 CE) · South Scandinavian Iron Age
Continuously occupied central place in Scania from c.100 BCE to 1000 CE, with a heathen temple building (200–950 CE, four-post staved cult house with beaker and gold foil figures), hall sequence and…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Early Dynastic to Neo-Assyrian to Parthian · Assyrian (Akkadian dialect)
First capital and holy city of Assyria (c.2600 BCE–614 BCE, 70 ha on Tigris bend) — temple of god Assur (Ashur) whose city and god name are one.
🇿🇦 South Africa · Ancient city
Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) · Bronze Age urban
Mapungubwe — Hill Ancillary Midden Terrace (Limpopo) in Limpopo, Mapungubwe, South Africa is a Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) ancient city attri…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Late Bronze Age to Late Antiquity (peak Hellenistic–Severan) · Hittite Anatolian → Pamphylian Greek → Roman
Pamphylian canal-avenue Hellenistic city with twin gate-towers and huge stadium.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Early Bronze Age Ej II–IVa (Jezirah Early Dynastic to Akkadian) · North Mesopotamian Kish tradition, Semitic (Nabada Akkadian)
Circular walled 3rd-millennium city Nabada (c.2900–2200 BCE, Early Jezirah III), 28 ha upper town + lower town 20 ha, centre of western Jezirah after Tell Brak.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Neolithic Hassuna-Samarra (c.6000–5600 BCE) · Hassuna
Type site 1939–44 excavation by Seton Lloyd that defined the Hassuna painted pottery tradition of northern Iraq.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) · Bronze Age urban
Zeugma — Mosaic House Danae Room Peristyle North in Gaziantep, Nizip, Zeugma, Turkey is a Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) ancient city attributed…
🇧🇿 Belize · Ancient city
Preclassic–Late Classic · Maya (Three Rivers)
Third-largest Belize Maya city (400 BCE–900 CE) — 25-m Great Pyramid with 85 plazas and 60-km sacbé network.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Maya Classic (Late Classic apogee) · Maya (Sa'al kingdom)
Classic Maya capital Sa'al (Naranjo) hilltop city: 32 m triadic Acropolis pyramid, hieroglyphic stairways of Lady Six Sky's wars with Tikal/Calakmul 500 BCE–950 CE.
🇹🇳 Tunisia · Submerged site
Punic to Byzantine (8th c. BCE – 7th c. CE) · Phoenician / Carthaginian / Roman
Caesar battle harbour — kilometer-long curving mole now 1–4 m offshore on Bekalta promontory.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Ancient city
Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) · Bronze Age urban
Jerash — North Theatre West Entrance (Gerasa) in Jerash Governorate, Jerash, Jordan is a Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) ancient city attributed …
🇧🇬 Bulgaria · Submerged site
Thracian to Ottoman (6th c. BCE – 1453+) · Thracian / Megarian Greek / Roman / Byzantine / Bulgarian / Ottoman
610 BCE Megarian peninsula city whose western fortifications now lie 4 m underwater.
🇧🇩 Bangladesh · Ancient city
Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) · Bronze Age urban
Pundranagara — East Rampart Gate (Mahasthangarh) in Rajshahi, Bogura, Mahasthangarh, Bangladesh is a Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) ancient city…
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Early Bronze to Mitanni to Assyrian to Parthian · Hurrian Mitanni → Middle Assyrian
Stratified Jezirah tell Kahat (c.3000 BCE–1400 CE, peak Mitanni capital c.1500–1360 BCE and Assyrian Kahat) on Jaghjagh mid-Khabur.
🇲🇦 Morocco · Ancient city
Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) · Bronze Age urban
Volubilis — Basilica Ancillary Forum North (Morocco) in Fès-Meknès, Volubilis, Morocco is a Bronze Age to Classical (3000 BCE–500 CE) ancient city attribut…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Seleucid to Mamluk · Greek → Roman → Byzantine → Crusader
One of the four great cities of antiquity (300 BCE–1400 CE), founded by Seleucus I honoring father Antiochos, capital of Seleucid kingdom and Roman Syria with 500,000 inhabitants at peak (Aug 5),…
🇿🇦 South Africa · Ancient city
Early to Middle Iron Age (K2 culture 1000–1220; Mapungubwe phase 1220–1290 CE) · Gokomere-Zhizo / Kalanga-Shona precursor / Mapungubwe culture
Iron Age kingdom (900–1290 CE) on Shashe–Limpopo confluence, Mapungubwe was southern Africa's earliest class-stratified state: elite on Mapungubwe Hill, commoners at foot, gold working – famous gold…
