Search places, or jump to a section
The catalogue
13 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.
🇮🇷 Iran · Temple complex
Sassanian Empire (224–651 CE), late Sassanian zenith · Sassanian Zoroastrian (Ahura Mazda, Anahita, Mithra) court art
Sassanian Zagros spring iwans: Shapur II/III small and Khosrow II great with boar hunt and armored cavalry.
🇮🇷 Iran · Pyramid
Early to Middle Bronze Age (Giyan III–IV) · Elamite / Highland Zagros (Giyan culture)
Zagros highland terrace shrine at Tepe Giyan c.2800–1700 BCE — 40 m proto-ziggurat mound linking Elamite terraces to later Median fire temples.
🇮🇷 Iran · Temple complex
Sassanian Early (Shapur I–II, 241–379 CE) · Sassanian Persian with Roman–Palmyrene craftsmen (prisoners)
Shapur I 260 CE grid city by Roman POWs after Valerian capture — Anahita water temple, mosaics, Chogan gorge 6 reliefs.
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Middle Elamite (1500–1350 BCE; short floruit ~100 years) · Middle Elamite (Kidinuid→Igihalkid)
Middle Elamite tomb-temple city of Tepti-Ahar with vaulted royal tombs and 600-tablet archive.
🇮🇷 Iran · Pyramid
Old Babylonian to Kassite (Middle Bronze) · Kassite / Highland Zagros
Zagros highland ziggurat at Choga Gavaneh c.1800 BCE — 60 m square mudbrick platform 15 m high with Kassite pottery linking Babylonia to Sialk highland line.
🇮🇷 Iran · Pyramid
Middle Elamite (Kabnak period) · Elamite
Middle Elamite ziggurat-tomb of King Tepti-Ahar c.1470 BCE at Haft Tepe (Kabnak) — 33 m platform with 354 m vaulted royal tomb and 400-tablet archive.
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Early to Middle Bronze (2500–1800 BCE; peak 2400–2200 BCE) · Jiroft / Kerman Bronze Age (Proto-Elamite derived, Halil Rud)
Jiroft twin citadels — 21 m windowed fortress and chlorite workshop centre of Marhashi.
🇮🇷 Iran · Tomb
Late Bronze Age I–II (c.1500–1000 BCE; peak 1300–1100 BCE) · Caspian highland Amarlou/Gilan local — Amardian? (pre-Median); strongly Iranian plateau but northern forest littoral
53-tomb Gilan gold necropolis with winged-bull rhyta and Marlik Gold Cup — Mycenae of the Caspian.
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Bronze Age to Iron II (Late Bronze–U/A Mannaean; peak Hasanlu IVB Iron II c.1050–800 BCE) · Late Bronze Hurrian–Mitanni substrate → Iron Age Mannaean (Indo-Iranian hint) under Urartian pressure → Assyrian fringe
Solduz hill-citadel torched c.800 BCE — 150 massacre-victims around the Gold Bowl.
🇮🇷 Iran · Pyramid
Elamite Middle Elamite (1344–1300 BCE) · Elamite (Middle Elamite)
Largest Mesopotamian-related ziggurat outside Mesopotamia: Elamite holy city Dur-Untash by King Untash-Napirisha (1344–1306 BCE) for god Inshushinak.
🇮🇷 Iran · Temple complex
Sasanian Empire 224–651 CE (peak 5th–7th century) → Ilkhanid 13th century reuse · Sasanian Zoroastrian → Ilkhanid Mongol Islamic palace phase
Sasanian Great Fire temple on a 120 m artesian lake — shahs' coronation sanctuary, later Ilkhanid palace.
🇮🇷 Iran · Pyramid
Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age (Uruk to ED) · Proto-Elamite / Jemdet Nasr
Early highland proto-ziggurat at Tepe Musiyan, Deh Luran — 50×70 m oval platform c.3100 BCE linking Uruk Susiana to Elamite highland terraces.
🇮🇷 Iran · Temple complex
Middle Elamite (c.1250–640 BCE) · Elamite
Elamite holy city built by King Untash-Napirisha (1250 BCE) to honor god Inshushinak: immense 105×105 m square ziggurat (originally 53 m high, 5 storeys) at center of three concentric walls with…
