🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Akhetaten (Amarna) – Abandoned Sun City
New Kingdom Amarna Period (1353–1332 BCE) · Egyptian (Atenist reform)
Akhenaten's 1346 BCE desert sun capital – 12 km planned city and 382 Amarna Letters, abandoned after one reign.
🇨🇦 Canada · Ancient village
L'Anse aux Meadows
Viking Age 1000–1006 CE (Norse Vinland exploration) · Norse Greenlanders (Icelandic Norse under Leifr Eiríksson / Thorfinn Karlsefni saga context)
Only confirmed Norse village in North America and earliest European settlement (~1000–1006 CE): eight turf-and-timber sod houses (halls 25×5 m, iron smithy, carpentry shed, charcoal kilns) on Épaves…
🇲🇽 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…
🇮🇱 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…
🇮🇱 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…
🇯🇴 Jordan · Ancient city
Umm ar-Rasas (Kastron Mefaa)
Roman to Umayyad (3rd–8th c CE; Byzantine peak 5th–8th c) · Roman / Byzantine / Ghassanid / Umayyad
Desert frontier city on Via Nova Traiana, Umm ar-Rasas contains Roman castrum, five Byzantine churches with superb mosaic floors, and the intact 14×6 m mosaic map in St Stephen's Church (718 CE) –…
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Palmyra
Hellenistic to Roman (Palmyrene Empire interlude) · Aramaean Palmyrene → Roman
Desert oasis emporium on Silk Road (1st c. BCE–273 CE) — 'Bride of the Desert' — caravans of Queen Zenobia who challenged Rome (267–272 CE, sacked by Aurelian).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Babylon
Old Babylonian to Neo-Babylonian and Hellenistic (1894 BCE–141 BCE; monumental peak Nebuchadnezzar II 604–562 BCE) · Babylonian / Assyrian / Persian / Hellenistic
Capital of Babylonian empire (1894 BCE–539 BCE) on Euphrates, Babylon at its greatest under Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar II (604–562 BCE): Processional Way, Ishtar Gate (glazed brick dragons and…
🇲🇱 Mali · Ancient city
Djenné-Djeno
Bio. Iron Age to Medieval (c.250 BCE–1400 CE; peak 400–1200 CE) · Djenné-Djeno culture / Inland Niger Delta Iron Age / Soninke-Bozo
Oldest sub-Saharan city (250 BCE–1400 CE) on Inland Niger Delta: 33 ha tell 8 m high with 69 mounds cluster spanning 4 km, without stone architecture but rich bio-archaeological sequence: slag, rice,…
🇮🇱 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…
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Paquimé (Casas Grandes)
Postclassic (Medio/Chihuahua culture) · Mogollon-Paquimé (Oasisamerica)
Largest pre-Hispanic pueblo city of northern Mexico (c.1130–1340 CE, 70 ha, population ~2,500) with multi-storey adobe apartments, T-shaped doors, I-shaped ballcourts (Mesoamerican), macaw breeding…
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Susa
Neolithic to Medieval (c.4200 BCE–1218 CE; Elamite capital c.2700–646 BCE; Achaemenid palace 522–331 BCE) · Elamite / Persian Achaemenid / Seleucid / Parthian / Sassanian
Elamite capital then Achaemenid administrative capital (Darius I, 522 BCE), Susa preserves mound sequence from 4200 BCE: Apadana of Darius (36 limestone columns, glazed brick friezes of Immortals and…
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia · Ancient city
Hegra
Lihyan to Nabataean to Roman Arabia Petraea · Nabataean Arab
Second capital of Nabataean kingdom after Petra (1st c. BCE–106 CE), with 131 rock-cut monumental tombs with decorated façades (Qasr al-Farid loner tomb iconic), Nabataean Aramaic inscriptions…
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan · Ancient city
State Historical Park Ancient Merv
Achaemenid 6th c BCE to Timurid 18th c CE (Seljuk peak 11th–13th c) · Parthian / Seljuk / Timurid (Persian-Central Asian)
Four superimposed cities of Merv oasis on Murghab alluvium: Erk Kala Achaemenid citadel, Gyaur Kala Hellenistic-Parthian double-walled (Antiochia Margiana), Sultan Kala Seljuk capital (world's…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Uruk (Warka)
Neolithic to Sassanian (c.5000 BCE–632 CE; Uruk period city 4000–3100 BCE) · Sumerian / Babylonian / Persian
Type site for Uruk period and first true city (c.4000–3100 BCE), Uruk at peak 2900 BCE housed 50,000–80,000 inside 9.5 km city wall built by Gilgamesh (per Epic).
🇨🇳 China · Ancient city
Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City
Liangzhu Culture 3400–2250 BCE (county late Neolithic) · Liangzhu (proto-Chinese Yangtze)
Neolithic Liangzhu culture capital (3400–2250 BCE) on Yangtze, covering 14.3 ha walled city with 6.3 km rectilinear earthen walls, hydraulic system with three dams and 26 km artificial canals to…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Ur
Ubaid to Persian (c.3800 BCE–300 BCE; Early Dynastic/Ur III peak 2600–2000 BCE) · Sumerian / Akkadian / Babylonian / Persian
Sumerian city-state of the moon god Nanna (Sîn), Ur famous for Woolley's excavations 1922–34: Ziggurat of Ur-Nammu (2112 BCE) best-preserved ziggurat, Royal Cemetery with Standard of Ur, Pu-abi's…
🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Dholavira
Mature Harappan 2650–2100 BCE (with Early/Late phases 3500–1800 BCE) · Indus Valley / Harappan
Harappan metropolis (2650–2100 BCE) on Khadir island in Great Rann of Kutch, the fifth largest Harappan site covering 100 ha with citadel, middle and lower towns and monumental water management.
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan · Ancient city
Parthian Fortresses of Nisa
Parthian Arsacid 3rd c BCE–3rd c CE (peak 1st c BCE–1st c CE) · Parthian / Arsacid
Parthian ceremonial and administrative capital (3rd c BCE–3rd c CE) of two tells: Old Nisa (Mithridatkert fortress 14 ha with 43 towers, wine rhytons and ivory rhytons inscribed Arsacid) and New Nisa…
🇨🇳 China · Ancient city
Yin Xu (Ruins of Yin at Anyang)
Late Shang Dynasty c.1300–1046 BCE (Anyang period) · Shang Chinese
Late Shang capital (1300–1046 BCE) on Huan River, premier Bronze Age urban site of East Asia covering 30 km² with palatial foundations, royal tombs (Fu Hao intact 76), 150,000 oracle bones with…
🇵🇰 Pakistan · Ancient city
Taxila
Gandhara 6th c BCE–5th c CE (Achaemenid to late Kushan) · Gandharan / multi-empire (Persian, Greek, Buddhist)
Palimpsest city spanning Gandhara civilization 6th c BCE–5th c CE with three successive cities (Bhir Mound, Sirkap, Sirsukh) and Buddhist monastery complex Dharmarajika.
🇨🇳 China · Ancient city
Capital Cities and Tombs of the Ancient Koguryo Kingdom (Ji'an)
Koguryo Kingdom 37 BCE–668 CE (Five Kingdoms period) – tombs 4th–7th c · Koguryo (proto-Korean in Manchuria)
Forty tombs of Koguryo Kingdom (37 BCE–668 CE) on Yalu, including General's Tomb (400 CE) – 31 m stepped pyramid of cut granite 12 layers recalling Mesoamerican form, and murals of lotus, hunting and…
🇺🇸 United States · Buried city
Cahokia Mounds
Emergent Mississippian to Stirling phase · Mississippian (Illinoian)
Largest Mississippian centre (650–1400 CE) with 120 mounds including Monks Mound (30 m, 1000x700 ft base, largest earthen platform north of Mexico).