🇪🇬 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.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Yumuktepe Mersin Re-evaluation Trench
Neolithic to Byzantine (6300 BCE–1300 CE) · Neolithic Mersin XXXIII → Chalcolithic Ubaid → EBA Cilician → Iron → Byzantine
Yumuktepe Mersin Re-evaluation Trench is the southern sounding of Yumuktepe — the Neolithic type-site for Cilician chronology (Garstang Mersin XXXIII–I, 6300–1300 CE) within modern Mersin.
🇪🇬 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.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Mohammed Diyab Southern Extension
Hassuna to Iron Age (6500 BCE–800 BCE) · Hassuna/Samarra → Halaf → Ninevite V → Mittani → Iron Age Aramean
Tell Mohammed Diyab Southern Extension is the 9.8-ha southern skirt of Tell Mohammed Diyab on the upper Khabur plain — a 30-m tell with one of the longest Neolithic-to-Iron sequences in inland Syria…
🇬🇷 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.
🇲🇽 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…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Tilbeşar Lower Town
Early Bronze to Crusader (3000 BCE–1300 CE) · Syrian EBA → Hittite → Neo-Assyrian → Crusader County of Edessa
Tilbeşar Lower Town sprawls below the 15-m fortress mound of Turbessel — Crusader capital of the County of Edessa.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Sirkeli Höyük
Chalcolithic through Byzantine; Hittite–Syro-Hittite peak · Cilician EBA → Hittite Empire (Kizzuwatna/Que) → Syro-Hittite Que
Cilician bend tell with Hittite imperial rock relief of Muwatalli II opposite mound — Chalcolithic to Syro-Hittite harbour town on Ceyhan.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Uşaklı Höyük
MBA → LBA Hittite → Iron → Byzantine (2000 BCE–1400 CE) · Hittite (Kizzuwatna?) → Phrygian → Byzantine
Hittite Zippalanda candidate (LB) — 10 ha lower town, monumental Temple B with tablet, Florentine project.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Assur
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.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Tell
Tall Jalul
EBA through Mamluk; Iron II peak · Moabite/Ammonite frontier → Persian Yehud fringe → Byzantine
Madaba Plains giant tell (18 ha) — Iron Ammonite pillared building, 9th c. destruction and Persian reoccupation, largest in Jordan’s Madaba Plains.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Hazor
Early Bronze to Hellenistic · Canaanite → Israelite → Assyrian
Largest Canaanite and Israelite tell in Israel (100 ha total: 12 ha upper acropolis + 70 ha lower city) — 'head of all those kingdoms' (Joshua 11:10) — with Middle Bronze earthen ramparts, Late…
🇯🇴 Jordan · Tell
Tall al-‘Umayri (Tell el-Umeiri)
EB through Persian; LB-Iron I transition key · Ammonite frontier; EB Canaanite → LB Canaanite/Ammonite
Ammonite wadi fortress with earliest Levantine four-room house (13th c. BCE) — LB-Iron citadel, casemate-rampart and Persian farm in Madaba Plains.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Tell Mozan (Urkesh)
Early Bronze to Mitanni (Hurrian Urkesh) · Hurrian
Hurrian capital Urkesh (c.3000–1350 BCE) attributed to the god Kumarbi, with monumental Royal Palace of Tupkish (c.2250 BCE) and underground stone Abi (nekromanteion — pit to summon underworld…
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Gezer
Early Bronze to Iron Age · Canaanite → Egyptian → Israelite
Hilltop Canaanite tel (c.3500–586 BCE) with the Gezer Calendar (10th c. BCE, earliest Hebrew inscription — agricultural almanac) and bronze-age standing-stone alignment: 10 monolithic massebot (up to…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Tilmen Höyük (Tilmen Hoyuk)
EBA through Iron Age; MBA peak · Yamhad (Aleppo) vassal; Syro-Hittite → Assyrian
MBA palace city (Zalwar?) with basalt lion gate, cuneiform archive and planned lower town — Yamhad-period vassal capital in Islahiye corridor.
🇮🇳 India · Archaeological wonder
Rakhigarhi Indus Mega-City
Pre-Harappan to Mature Harappan to Late (~6500–1900 BCE; urban peak 2600–1900 BCE) · Indus Valley Civilization (Harappan, Hakra–Ghaggar)
Spread across seven mounds over 550 ha, Rakhigarhi surpasses Mohenjo-daro as the largest Harappan settlement, straddling the dried Ghaggar (Saraswati) river.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Tell Brak (Nagar) (Al-Hasakah Governorate, Khabur Triangle)
Chalcolithic to Mitanni-Akkadian to Late Bronze · North Mesopotamian (Uruk → Akkadian → Hurrian)
Huge early city ('city without a state' per Oates) occupied 6000 BCE–1300 CE, peaking as Nagar kingdom (2600–2200 BCE) with Mitanni palace (1500 BCE) and Akkadian Naram-Sin palace.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Ebla
Early Bronze IVA–B (2400–1600 BCE) · Eblaite Semitic (Northwest Semitic)
Syrian superpower Ebla (c.3500–1600 BCE) with double-walled city (60 ha) and Royal Palace G — where Paolo Matthiae 1975 found the Ebla archive: 17,000 cuneiform tablets in Sumerian and Eblaite…
🇨🇳 China · Archaeological wonder
Erlitou – Xia Capital
Early Bronze Age (~1900–1500 BCE; Xia to early Shang) · Erlitou ( Xia, early Bronze Age Chinese)
300-ha rammed-earth palace enclosure on the Luo River where 11,000 m² Palace No.1 and a bronze foundry document the transition from Longshan Neolithic to bronze kingship.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Bakla Tepe
EBA (c.3000-2000 BCE) · Western Anatolian EBA (Troy I-II, Yortan sphere)
Bakla Tepe — buried eba tell/village at İzmir Province.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Megiddo
Chalcolithic to Iron Age / Persian · Canaanite → Egyptian → Israelite
Strategic tell commanding Via Maris (Egypt-Mesopotamia road) through Jezreel, occupied 7000 BCE–586 BCE with 26 strata, Thutmosis III 1457 BCE battle (first battle in recorded history), Canaanite…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Kumtepe
EBA (c.3000-2000 BCE) · Western Anatolian EBA (Troy I-II, Yortan sphere)
Kumtepe — buried eba tell/village at Çanakkale Province.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Lachish
Early Bronze to Babylonian destruction 587 BCE · Canaanite → Israelite/Judahite
Major Canaanite city-state and Judahite fortress second only to Jerusalem (Joshua, Hezekiah, Sennacherib's 701 BCE reliefs at British Museum).