🇸🇩 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.
🇮🇷 Iran · Pyramid
Tepe Giyan Ziggurat Mound (Nahavand)
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.
🇦🇫 Afghanistan · Temple complex
Fondukistan Conical Hill Monastery
Hephthalite–Turk Shahi 7th–8th c CE late Buddhist · Hephthalite Buddhist — Central Asian late Gandhara (Fondukistan style)
Fondukistan Conical Hill Monastery — 8th c CE (c.700 CE Hackin terminus post quem 689 CE via coins) Buddhist monastery on conical hilltop at Ghorband Valley pass 50 km NW Kabul, excavated 1933–40 by…
🇮🇷 Iran · Temple complex
Bishapur — Sassanid City and Anahita Temple
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.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Ziggurat of Etemenanki (Tower of Babel)
Old Babylonian to Neo-Babylonian · Babylonian
Neo-Babylonian ziggurat of Marduk at Babylon — Etemenanki 'House of Heaven-Earth' — 91 m seven-stage prototype of Tower of Babel, rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar II.
🇭🇳 Honduras · Ancient city
Copán
Classic 426–822 CE (dynastic Copán, peak 695–820) · Maya (southeast Petén sphere, Copán kingdom, non-Maya frontier)
Premier Classic southeastern Maya capital and sculpture capital: Acropolis with 4,500 glyph Hierarchical Stairway (longest Classic Maya text – 72 steps, 2,200 glyphs recording 14 kings), Rosalila…
🇩🇰 Denmark · Ancient city
Sorte Muld
Roman Iron Age → Vendel–Viking 200–1100 (Bornholm central place) · Bornholm Iron Age (Burgundians? Bornholm island central place, guldgubbar sanctuary)
Sorte Muld (Black Soil) — Iron Age central-place and sanctuary (Late Roman 200–400 → Viking Age 400–1100, peak Vendel 600–800) on Bornholm plateau 2 km south Svaneke, eastern Bornholm's richest site.
🇵🇪 Peru · Ancient city
Wari (Huari) Archaeological Complex
Middle Horizon 600–1000 CE (Huarpa antecedent 200 BCE–600 CE) · Wari (Huari, Middle Horizon Andean empire, Quechua predecessor, Ayacucho basin)
Capital of Wari Empire (600–1000 CE) – Andean first empire predating Inca by 400 years, 2,000 ha patchwork city with 7 m-high, 2 m-thick walled enclosures (Moraduchayuq, Vegachayuq Moqo),…
🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Eran
Chalcolithic 1200–600 BCE → Sunga 200 BCE → Gupta 4–6 c. CE · Chalcolithic → Sunga → Gupta (Vakataka-Hunas)
Gupta temple city Airikina on Bina river (600 BCE–600 CE) — home to 2.66 m Varaha boar (510 CE) and earliest Sati inscription.
🇮🇷 Iran · Ancient city
Haft Tepe (Haft Tappeh, ancient Kabnak)
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.