🇪🇬 Egypt · Archaeological wonder
Abu Mena
Late Roman to Early Byzantine 4th–7th c. CE, peak 5th–6th c. · Coptic Christian / Byzantine Egyptian
Desert pilgrimage city of Saint Menas, 4th–7th c., now endangered by water table rise.
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The catalogue
124 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.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Archaeological wonder
Late Roman to Early Byzantine 4th–7th c. CE, peak 5th–6th c. · Coptic Christian / Byzantine Egyptian
Desert pilgrimage city of Saint Menas, 4th–7th c., now endangered by water table rise.
🇹🇭 Thailand · Ancient city
Dvaravati Culture 6th–13th CE (Mon) → Khmer → Ayutthaya · Dvaravati Mon (Austroasiatic Mon) with Mahayana–Hindu–Theravada syncretism
Dvaravati (Mon) ancient twin-city (c.500–1300 CE) on the Pa Sak plains 200 km north of Bangkok in Phetchabun — UNESCO World Heritage 2023 'The Ancient Town of Si Thep and its Associated Dvaravati…
🇮🇱 Israel · Hydraulic works
Second Temple (Herodian) to Byzantine · Herodian Jewish / Roman / Byzantine
Mamilla (Birket Mamilla) reservoir (760 m asl, 31°46′42″N 35°13′15″E 31.7786,35.2209) 650 m NW of Jaffa Gate in centre of Mamilla Cemetery, one of Jerusalem's ancient pools (Upper pool of Gihon)…
🇲🇽 Mexico · Geoglyph
Medio period (Casas Grandes, 1060–1340 CE) · Mogollon–Paquimé (Casas Grandes)
60+ adobe and rubble geoglyphs (1060–1340 CE) surrounding the Mogollon city of Paquimé — acolyte owl and avenues.
🇨🇳 China · Rock art
Bronze Age to Iron Age (Luoyue) · Luoyue (proto-Zhuang) Dian-related
Fusui east cliff of UNESCO Huashan 170-m hematite painting with 1100 frog-shamans and bronze drums, 500 BCE–200 CE.
🇰🇭 Cambodia · Hydraulic works
Angkor early (Yasovarman) 9th–10th c · Khmer devaraja hydraulicians
Eastern Baray cascade satellite 4 km east of Angkor East Baray: 3 linked laterite reservoirs buffering monsoon overflow.
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia · Geoglyph
Neolithic humid phase (Holocene) · Jubbah lake-shore hunters
Jubbah paleolake-marginal kites: 16 funnels at Umm Sanman piedmont below UNESCO rock-art cliffs.
🇹🇭 Thailand · Ancient village
Neolithic → Bronze Age → Iron Age 3000 BCE–200 CE · Ban Chiang culture (Isan Neolithic–Bronze, Ban Kao related)
Neolithic–Iron Age moated village (c.3000 BCE–200 CE) at Ban Chiang, Isan, northeast Thailand — 30 ha UNESCO World Heritage (ID 359) excavated 1967–73 by Chester Gorman, Pisit Charoenwongsa and later…
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Tumulus
Early Saka (Scythian) Iron Age · Saka Tigrakhauda (pointed-hat Sakas)
Saka steppe royal cemetery 28 km from Almaty: 81 kurgans 45-105 m with tigrine gold plaques.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient village
Neolithic to medieval (1500 BCE–17th c; historic 11th c) · Tichitt culture → Soninke Wagadu → Beidane Moors
Neolithic to oasis caravan terminus: Tichitt-culture compounds plus red-white geometric plaster houses of 11th-c Ghana twin capital Biru.
🇪🇸 Spain · Hydraulic works
Roman Augustan (late Republic to early Principate) · Roman Tarraconensis (Tarraco Colonia)
217-m Augustan double-tier arcade (20 BCE–20 CE) 27 m high — Tarraco's Francolí aqueduct masterpiece.
🇵🇪 Peru · Geoglyph
Late Horizon (Inca Imperial) · Inca (Quechua)
High-altitude (3,400 m) radial sacred geography of the Inca capital: 41 ceque lines radiating from Coricancha/Qorikancha to huaca shrines bounding Sacsayhuamán pampa and Chinchaysuyo suyu.
🇨🇳 China · Rock art
Warring States to Western Han · Luoyue / Zhuang ancestors
North Mingjiang tributary cliffs with 210 frog-men and scaffold postholes.
🇷🇺 Russia · Kurgan
Early Iron Age (Pazyryk) · Pazyryk (Siberian Ice Maiden horizon)
Southern flank of Ukok Plateau World Heritage 768 (2,200 m, 49°21′N 87°30′E) Ak-Alakha River valley palsa permafrost where Molodin 1993 Princess of Ukok site (Ak-Alakha-3) and 6 new kurgans form…
🇮🇷 Iran · Hydraulic works
Sassanian (Roman capture) · Sassanian Persian, Roman legion engineers
Karun 500-m Roman arch bridge-dam by Valerian's legion 260 CE with Gargar mills, core of UNESCO Shushtar system.
🇦🇲 Armenia · Temple complex
Early Christian Armenian (301–650 CE) · Early Armenian Apostolic; Urartian–Hellenistic pagan predecessor
301 CE Gregory the Illuminator's cathedral over Tir temple — world's oldest state church, Hripsime 618 tetraconch.
🇬🇷 Greece · Temple complex
Late Classical (Peloponnesian War) · Classical Athenian
421–405 BCE asymmetric Ionic with Caryatids, housing Athena Polias and Poseidon-Erechtheus on Mycenaean terrace.
🇦🇿 Azerbaijan · Rock art
Upper Palaeolithic to Iron Age · Gobustan hunters, Kura-Araxes, Classical (Roman contact)
South slope of Kichikdash with 1100 boat and aurochs hunt cupule petroglyphs.
🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan · Ancient city
Western Turkic → Tang protectorate → Karluks/Qarakhanid 6–12 c. CE · Sogdian → Turkic Khaganate → Karluks (Silk Road Buddhist-Christian-Manichaean)
Sogdian–Turkic Silk Road capital (c.6–12 c. CE) at Ak-Beshim in the Chu Valley — 35 ha walled shahristan (650×560 m) with Buddhist temple complex (two temples 50×30 m with clay Buddhas), Nestorian…
🇱🇦 Laos · Ancient temple
Chenla (5th–8th CE) → Khmer Angkor Wat (11th–13th) → Lao Buddhist (13th+) · Chenla Khmer (Hindu Shaiva) → Angkor Wat Khmer → Lan Xang Laotian Buddhist
Khmer Hindu–Buddhist temple complex and ancient city (c.5th–13th century CE, Chenla to Angkor Wat period) at Phou Khao foot near Mekong in Champasak, Laos — UNESCO World Heritage 'Vat Phou and…
🇨🇳 China · Rock art
Bronze Age to Han · Luoyue / Lạc Việt (ancient Zhuang ancestors), Dian periphery
West bank cliff opposite main Hua Mountain with bronze-drum anthropomorph sequence.
🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates · Archaeological wonder
Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age (Hafit, 3200–2600 BCE) · Hafit (early eastern Arabian pastoral)
14 Hafit piedmont kites (3200–2600 BCE) interlocked with beehive tombs — Al Ain UNESCO landscape.
🇹🇳 Tunisia · Ancient city
Phoenician to Ottoman (1100 BCE–16th c; peak 2nd–4th c) · Phoenician / Punic / Roman / Early Christian / Islamic
Phoenician-tradition colonia under Sousse medina with 5.5 km catacombs, Virgil mosaic and Byzantine kasbah.
🇵🇪 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…