🇨🇱 Chile · Geoglyph
Atacama Giant
Late Intermediate 900–1450 CE · Atacameño / Pica-Tarapacá culture influenced by Tiwanaku
World's largest anthropomorphic geoglyph: 119-m hill figure marking caravan trails.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Moundville Archaeological Park
Mississippian 1000–1450 CE, apogee 1200–1350 CE · Mississippian (ancestral Choctaw/Chickasaw)
29-mound plaza center with grand chief's platform mound above Black Warrior River.
🇮🇷 Iran · Hydraulic works
Qanat of Gonabad
Achaemenid to Sassanian (~700 BCE – 300 CE) · Persian (Achaemenid, Sassanian)
Possibly the oldest and deepest qanat in Iran, the Qasabeh Qanat of Gonabad extends 33 km with a mother-well 300 m deep — the deepest vertical shaft ever hand-dug.
🇲🇳 Mongolia · Megalith
Deer Stones of the Mongolian Plateau
Late Bronze Age (~1400–700 BCE) · Karakhush / Deer Stone–Khirigsuur culture (Bronze-Age pastoralist)
Over 1,200 granite stelae across Mongolia present stylized reindeer in airborne gallop covering the stone from antler to hoof, interspersed with suns, daggers and human face-belts marking the waist.
🇮🇹 Italy · Temple complex
Paestum Temples of Poseidon
Archaeic-Classical Greek 600–450 BCE · Greek (Achaean colonists) then Lucanian and Roman
Mainland Italy's three perfect Greek Doric temples, era 550–460 BCE.
🇨🇳 China · Temple complex
Longmen Grottoes
Northern Wei to Tang 493–907 CE (peak Northern Wei 493–534, Tang 618–907) · Chinese Buddhist (Wei-Tang)
1-km limestone gorge with 1345 caves and niches, 2,345 caves total? Actually 1,345 caves, 43 pagodas and 100,000+ Buddhist images (largest Vairocana 17.14 m) carved 493–907 CE from Northern Wei…
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Maijishan Grottoes
Sixteen Kingdoms to Tang ~384–907 CE · Chinese Buddhist Northern Dynasties
Stacked-cliff wheat-plant-shaped grotto city with 7,200 sculptures on bolted plank galleries.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Tianlongshan Cave 8 — Manshan Pavilion Buddha Sanctuary
Eastern Wei to Tang (534 – 750 CE) · Buddhist Northern dynasties under Gao Qi and Tang
Cave 8 Manshan Buddha 3.6 m of Northern Qi–Tang on western slope.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Mogao Northern Caves — Dunhuang Oasis North Cliff Monastic Cells
Sixteen Kingdoms to Yuan (366 – 1368 CE) northern cells 960–1300 · Buddhist monastic Dunhuang oasis international
North cliff austere monastic cells 1000–1300 CE opposite southern painted scripture halls.
🇬🇷 Greece · Temple complex
Ancient Agora of Athens
Archaic to Roman 600 BCE–267 CE, Classical peak 5th c. BCE · Athenian Greek
Democratic square of Athens with intact Hephaisteion, Stoa of Attalos and Socratic stoa.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Bingling (Binglingsi) Grottoes
Sixteen Kingdoms to Ming ~420–1644 CE · Northwestern Chinese Buddhist (Western Qin to Tibetan)
Yellow River cliff grotto accessible only by boat, bearing China's earliest dated 420 CE inscription.
🇯🇵 Japan · Temple complex
Ise Grand Shrine (Ise Jingu)
Yayoi legend 4 BCE; historically Asuka period c.692 CE, rebuilt every 20 years · Yamato / Shinto (Japanese imperial)
Shinto's holiest shrine complex (founding legend 4 BCE, attested 692 CE) in primeval cryptomeria forest, dedicated to Amaterasu Ōmikami (Naikū) and Toyouke (Gekū).
🇨🇳 China · Ancient city
Sanxingdui Archaeological Site
Shu Culture 1200–1000 BCE (Sanxingdui period III) · Shu (Sichuan Basin, non-Han?)
Shu Kingdom sacrificial pits (1200–1000 BCE) revealed 1929 and sensationally 1986 with two pits of bronzes unlike Anyang Shang: 2.6 m bronze standing figure, mask with 132 cm protruding eyes, and…
🇯🇵 Japan · Ancient village
Yoshinogari Site
Yayoi period 400 BCE–300 CE (peak 1st–3rd c CE) · Yayoi (Kyushu farmer, Korean peninsula immigrants)
Largest Yayoi (400 BCE–300 CE) moated village and chiefdom at Yoshinogari hills, 40 ha inner enclosure within 117 ha, with outer moat 2.5 km, watchtowers, raised-floor granary precinct, and king's…
🇮🇹 Italy · Temple complex
Selinunte Archaeological Park
Archaeic-Classical 651–409 BCE · Greek (Megaran colonists)
Largest Greek archaeological park with colossal unfinished Temple G.
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Brihadeeswarar Temple, Thanjavur
Chola 1003–1010 CE · Hindu (Shaiva, Tamil Chola)
Chola granite imperial vimana 66 m still tallest pre-modern; capstone ramp mystery.
🇧🇴 Bolivia · Geoglyph
Sajama Lines
Formative to Imperial, 900 BCE–1500 CE active; origins possibly 1500 BCE · Aymara and pre-Aymara Andean; later Tiwanaku-Inca incorporation
Largest line network on Earth - 16,000 km of sacred Aymara pilgrimage lines.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Longmen Binyang Central Cave — Mt Long Gate Middle Grotto Sanctuary
Northern Wei to Tang (493 – 750 CE) · Buddhist imperial Luoyang under Empress Dowager Hu
Central Binyang 11 m Buddha of Northern Wei Emperor Xuanwu at Yi Gorge.
🇰🇭 Cambodia · Ancient city
Angkor Thom and the Bayon
Khmer Empire 1181–1243 CE (Bayon peak Jayavarman VII) · Khmer Mahayana Buddhist (with Shaiva syncretism)
Khmer capital city (late 12th century by Jayavarman VII) covering 9 km² walled square with Bayon state temple – 54 towers with 216 enigmatic smiling Avalokiteshvara faces blending Mahayana compassion…
🇬🇷 Greece · Temple complex
Delos Archaeological Site
Archaeic to Hellenistic-Roman 9th c. BCE–69 BCE, sacred from Bronze Age · Greek (Ionian) to Hellenistic-Roman
Sacred island birthplace of Apollo - entire island is UNESCO open-air museum.
🇯🇵 Japan · Ancient city
Heijō Palace (Heijō-kyō)
Nara Period 710–784 CE (with brief return 745–784) · Yamato / Nara Japanese (Ritsuryo)
Imperial palace of Heijō-kyō capital (710–784 CE) modeling Tang Chang'an, 1.2×1.6 km enclosure with Daigokuden audience hall, Suzaku Gate and Eastern Palace Garden ponds.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Effigy Mounds National Monument
Late Woodland 500–1200 CE, effigies c.700–1100 CE · Late Woodland (Ancestral Ioway/Ho-Chunk?)
31 bear-and-bird effigy mounds marching on Mississippi bluff.
🇮🇷 Iran · Hydraulic works
Qanat of Zarch, Yazd
Achaemenid to present ~700 BCE–present · Persian (Median/Achaemenid onward)
71 km 2,115-shaft Zarch qanat - world's longest - still feeding Yazd after 3,000 years.
🇮🇳 India · Hydraulic works
Kallanai South Sluice — Grand Anicut Vennar Distributary Head
Chola Early historic to Medieval (100 – 1030 CE) · Tamil Chola hydraulic statecraft
South Vennar regulator of 2nd-c Chola anicut with Rajendra I inscriptions 1012 CE.