🇨🇳 China · Temple complex
Maijishan Western Cliff Grottoes
Sixteen Kingdoms to Song · Later Qin, Northern Wei, Western Wei, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song
Sheer west face 80 m with 72 hanging grottoes on plank balconies — Maijishan postcard cliff.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Temple of Artemis at Sardis
Hellenistic to Roman (300 BCE–150 CE) · Lydian heritage, Seleucid, Attalid and Roman (Sardian polis)
Lydian capital's colossal Ionic Artemision 48×112 m, Hellenistic to Roman pseudodipteral.
🇪🇹 Ethiopia · Temple complex
Yeha Temple (Great Temple)
Pre-Aksumite Ethio-Sabaean (D'MT) Early South Arabian to Aksumite (800 BCE–500 CE) · Ethio-Sabaean (D'MT; South Arabian migrants + Tigrayan)
Africa's oldest standing building – 14 m high 700 BCE Sabaean Almaqah temple intact with dry-jointed ashlar sandstone.
🇸🇪 Sweden · Temple complex
Gamla Uppsala
Vendel Period → Early Viking Age 500–1100 (Swedish pre-Christian) · Vendel Period Svear (Yngling dynasty) — Swedish pagan royal
Gamla Uppsala — Vendel Period royal cult centre (c.500–800 CE pagan temple and 6th c King's Mounds Kungshögarna: three 45–60 m diameter burial mounds 9–11 m high, Thing Mound flat-top) on Uppsala…
🇨🇴 Colombia · Archaeological wonder
San Agustín Archaeological Park (Huila – Colombian Massif (Magdalena watershed))
Regional Classic 1–900 CE (Early 1–300, Middle 300–800, Late 800–900) · Agustinian (San Agustín culture, undetermined linguistic affiliation, Colombian massif)
Largest group of religious monuments and megalithic sculptures in Latin America: 500+ monumental tombs, volcanic tuff statues (5.5 m ‘Double of San Agustín’ double-figure, Eagle devouring snakes),…
🇬🇷 Greece · Temple complex
Temple of Hephaestus (Hephaisteion)
Classical (High Classical, Age of Pericles) · Classical Greek (Athenian)
449–415 BCE Doric 6×13 temple atop Agora Kolonos, best-preserved Greek temple, Hephaestus–Athena Ergane.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Pampa de las Llamas — Moxeke Pyramid (Santa Valley)
Initial Period (Moxeke–Casma) · Moxeke / Casma (Initial Period)
Initial Period 1800 BCE twin pyramid city at Moxeke — 160×170 m 30 m pyramid facing Huaca A across plaza, largest Santa Valley centre contemporary with Sechín.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Sanctuary of Demeter at Knidos
Classical to Hellenistic (350–100 BCE peak) · Dorian Greek (Knidian polis)
Peninsula-tip Demeter terrace Doric prostylos with thesmophoria pits and Knidos double harbour.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Huaca de la Luna Plaza — Moche
Early Intermediate, c.400-600 CE (Moche) · Andean (Moche)
Huaca de la Luna at foot of Cerro Blanco (Moche, 5 km south Trujillo): 35 m high ritual pyramid-platform with 5 superimposed construction phases (each entombing earlier with fill) decorated with…
🇸🇩 Sudan · Pyramid
Amara West
New Kingdom to Third Intermediate/Napatan (1300–800 BCE) · Egyptian colonial and Nubian (Kushite)
Viceregal capital of Egyptian Kush (1300–800 BCE), 200×200 m walled town with 300+ pyramid tombs.
🇸🇩 Sudan · Pyramid
Amara West Temple-Town
New Kingdom (Ramesside) to Early Napatan · Egyptian (viceregal) / Kushite
Ramesside viceregal capital town of Kush at Amara West — 200 m walled city of Seti I/Ramesses II c.1300 BCE with Amun temple and external Napatan mini-pyramid cemetery.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
El Paraíso
Late Preceramic / Cotton Preceramic (3500–1800 BCE) · Andean Late Preceramic (Norte Chico–Chillón tradition, El Paraíso)
Late Preceramic mega-complex (3500–1800 BCE) in Chillón Valley, 58 ha, 11 pyramids, largest 100×100 m.
🇧🇿 Belize · Ancient city
Altun Ha
Preclassic 900 BCE–1000 CE (plazas 200–900 CE; jade tomb early 300 CE) · Maya (northern coastal Belize, Altun Ha polity, Lowland–Caribbean zone)
Coastal-plain trade port city controlling Caribbean shell, salt and jade routes near Rockstone Pond wetlands: twin Temple of the Masonry Altars (B4, 16 m high) with three altar superstructures and…
🇨🇴 Colombia · Archaeological wonder
Tierradentro National Archaeological Park (Cauca – Tierradentro (eastern Cauca Andes, Paéz valley))
Regional Classic 600–900 CE (Tierradentro phase; pre-Tierradentro contexts 300 BCE–600 CE in shafts) · Tierradentro (Nasa Páez region, distinct from San Agustín, Cauca Andes)
World-unique Andean hypogea mountain cemetery: 162 known rock-cut underground chamber tombs (5–8 m deep via vertical winding stair duct, oval 12 m chambers with radial pillars, domed ceilings…
🇨🇳 China · Temple complex
Bingling Temple Upper Gorge Grottoes
Sixteen Kingdoms to Early Tang · Western Qin, Northern Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang
8-km-upstream Western Qin cliff with 420 CE earliest murals above reservoir.
🇪🇨 Ecuador · Fortress
Rumicucho
Late Horizon Inca (c.1480–1534 CE) – Yumbo anterior occupation · Inca – Yumbo (pre-Inca)
Rumicucho (Kichwa rumi stone + cucho corner/hill) is the northernmost Inca fortress-temple of Pichincha, 13 km north of Quito at Mitad del Mundo (Equator monument zone) at 2,420 m.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Iassos Agora Temple of Artemis Astias
Archaic to Roman · Ionian, Carian, Hellenistic
Kıyıkışlacık peninsula agora tetrastyle Artemis Astias 150 BCE with Roman mausoleum, Iassic Gulf fishing town.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Amyzon Temple of Artemis — Mazınkale Acropolis
Hellenistic · Carian, Chrysaoric League
450-m Mazınkale Artemis mountain sanctuary with 200+ votives and Chrysaoric League epigraphy wall, 3rd BCE.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient village
El Cedral Cozumel
Late Preclassic – Postclassic (c.300 BCE–1518 CE) Cozumel Maya – Spanish contact · Maya (Coastal East Coast)
El Cedral is Cozumel island's oldest pueblo (Preclassic village Oycib) 17 km south of San Miguel, Quintana Roo, at 10 m.
🇦🇫 Afghanistan · Temple complex
Fondukistan
Turk Shahi 699–752 CE → Umayyad–Ghaznavid 752 CE–1000 · Late Gandharan–Turk Shahi Buddhist (Kabul school post-Gandhara)
Ghorband conical-hill fortress monastery (699–752 CE) — earliest Turk Shahi polychrome stucco linking Bamyan to Kashmir after Arabs.
🇺🇦 Ukraine · Cave
Verteba Cave
Chalcolithic Trypillia BI–C1 (4100–3500 BCE) Podolia cave sanctuary · Cucuteni-Trypillia (Podolia cave sanctuary phase, Bilche-Zolote variant)
Verteba Cave (Peștera Verteba) — gypsum karst cave sanctuary (Cucuteni-Trypillia CI 4100–3500 BCE, 9 km passages) at Bilche-Zolote, Podolia, Ukraine's largest Trypillia cave site.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Kastabos Temple of Hemithea — Hisarburnu Peninsula
Classical to Hellenistic · Rhodian Greek, Carian
Hisarburnu healing sanctuary of Hemithea half-goddess with 35-m altar and incubation stoa, 4th BCE Rhodian Peraea.
🇦🇫 Afghanistan · Temple complex
Bamyan Buddhas
Late Buddhist Gandhara–Tokharistan 5th–10th c; Hun–Turk Shahi patronage · Gandhara–Sogdian Buddhist (Hindu Kush)
55 m and 38 m colossal Buddhas on Bamyan canyon (544–644 CE) — 1000 caves, oil murals, UNESCO 208.
🇸🇩 Sudan · Pyramid
Musawwarat es-Sufra — Great Enclosure (Butana Steppe, Sudan)
Meroitic (300 BCE–350 CE) · Kushite (Meroitic)
Enigmatic Meroitic 3rd-century BCE–1st-century CE sandstone temple complex 25 km from Nile in Butana steppe, 180 km NE of Khartoum and 20 km north of Naqa.