🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Xiangtangshan Grottoes — Echo Hall Mountains
Northern Dynasties to Tang (550 – 907 CE) · Northern Qi, Sui, Tang
Handan limestone 38 Northern Qi caves with 30-cm undercut floating drape 550–577 CE.
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2,048 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.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Northern Dynasties to Tang (550 – 907 CE) · Northern Qi, Sui, Tang
Handan limestone 38 Northern Qi caves with 30-cm undercut floating drape 550–577 CE.
🇵🇪 Peru · Fortress
Early Intermediate – Middle Horizon (c.200 BCE–800 CE) Recuay – Wari · Recuay (Pashash) – Wari
Pashash crowns a defensible mesa above Cabana in the northern Callejón, Ancash, at 3,225 m. As the,type-capital of the Recuay-Pashash culture (200 BCE–800 CE), its stone palace-fortress encloses…
🇲🇳 Mongolia · Rock art
Upper Palaeolithic to Early Bronze · Palaeolithic Kalgutinsky, Afanasievo, Chemurchek, Okunev
Mid-valley of Tsagaan Salaa with Late Pleistocene bulls under Bronze elk on same boulders.
🇪🇷 Eritrea · Ancient city
Pre-Aksumite to Late Aksumite to Early Islamic (500 BCE–8th c CE; peak 1st–6th c) · Pre-Aksumite D'MT → Aksumite (South Arabian/Eritrean)
40 ha Aksumite–Roman Red Sea port of Periplus linking elephant ivory to Mediterranean with temple and 4th-c basilica plus trilingual Monumentum Adulitanum.
🇵🇪 Peru · Geoglyph
Late Horizon (Inca Imperial) · Inca (Quechua)
High-altitude (3,400 m) radial sacred geography of the Inca capital: 41 ceque lines radiating from Coricancha/Qorikancha to huaca shrines bounding Sacsayhuamán pampa and Chinchaysuyo suyu.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Pyramid
Late Middle Kingdom (13th Dynasty) · Ancient Egyptian
Unfinished Southern South Saqqara pyramid 100 m south of Khendjer — late 13th-Dynasty 52–60 m mudbrick trench c.1730 BCE, abandoned without burial chamber.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Chalcolithic through Roman (Chalcolithic, EBA, Iron, Hellenistic-Roman Gindaros) · Afrin chalcolithic → Amuq EBA → Aramaean → Hellenistic-Roman Gindaros
Tell Jinderis (Jindires / Gindaros) — Hilltop Stronghold is a multi-period tell/ancient village in Aleppo Governorate, Afrin District, Afrin River plain, Kurd-Dagh, Syria — Afrin plain hilltop tell…
🇯🇴 Jordan · Hydraulic works
Chalcolithic to Early Bronze IA (Levantine proto-urban) · Levantine Early Bronze proto-urban pastoralists
3000 BCE basalt proto-city with 5 dams and canals—the second-oldest hydraulic network.
🇧🇴 Bolivia · Geoglyph
Formative to Middle Horizon (Lípez–Intersalar) · Lípez / Intersalar–early Tiwanaku
25+ hill and salar-margin geoglyphs (800 BCE–800 CE) guiding Lípez salt caravans at 3,656 m.
🇸🇴 Somalia · Rock art
Early to Mid Holocene (7000–3000 BCE) · Early Pastoral Neolithic of the Horn (pre-Cushitic pastoralists)
Somaliland granite shelters 20 panels polychrome longhorn cattle 7000–3000 BCE.
🇨🇱 Chile · Geoglyph
Late Intermediate (Pica–Tarapacá) · Pica–Tarapacá oasis farmers
Pampa between Pica and Matilla: 24 rhombus and avenue figures aligned to puquio water galleries.
🇺🇦 Ukraine · Ancient city
Chalcolithic, Trypillia BII Cucuteni A-B · Cucuteni–Trypillia culture
3850 BCE 450-ha burnt-house proto-city—6,000 inhabitants, Europe's largest Chalcolithic settlement.
🇨🇳 China · Rock art
Warring States to Western Han · Luoyue / Zhuang ancestors
North Mingjiang tributary cliffs with 210 frog-men and scaffold postholes.
🇯🇴 Jordan · Geoglyph
PPNB Late to LN (7000–5500 BCE) · Ithnayn twin-cone pass trappers (Maitland–Kheshabiyeh fringe)
6 pass-straddling kites 740 m: 900 m walls ascend 38° cone slopes to dual opposing pens in 420 m col — only ridge-break kite system.
🇩🇪 Germany · Archaeological wonder
Early Iron Age (Jastorf / La Tène) · North German Early Iron Age
Dual Iron Age bog trackways (25 m asl) southeast through Wittmoor (Moor 53°42′00″N 10°04′10″E 53.699984N 10.069399E per Wikipedia No II 1904 Wolff discovery) and parallel No I 500 m northeast.
🇵🇪 Peru · Temple complex
Late Preceramic – Initial Period (c.3500–1200 BCE) Andes · Norte Chico – Chavín-related Late Preceramic
Buena Vista in the middle Chillón Valley is a Late Preceramic fox-temple pyramid famous for its precocious solstice astronomy.
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient village
Sinagua (c.1100–1400 CE) Southern Sinagua Classic · Sinagua
Montezuma Castle – neither castle nor Aztec – is North America's best-preserved cliff dwelling, inset 30 m up a vertical limestone cliff above Beaver Creek in Verde Valley, Arizona.
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan · Ancient city
Namazga I–VI 4000–1800 BCE (Chalcolithic to Bronze Age) · Anau–Namazga oasis civilization (Pre-BMAC Kopet)
Bronze Age mega-tell and type-site for Namazga chronology (c.4000–1800 BCE) near the Tejen River fan 100 km east of Ashgabat — 50 ha tepe (largest in Turkmenistan) with 30 m stratigraphy (Namazga…
🇲🇽 Mexico · Tell
Formative Olmec (c.1500–500 BCE); Early–Middle Formative 1500–700 BCE (Olmec apogee 900–500 BCE), Late Formative 500–100 BCE, Epiclassic 500–900 CE · Olmec (Gulf Coast style) → Highland central Mexican Formative (Tlatilco–Olmec) → Late Formative Morelos
Olmec Highland hill-carved ceremonial terraces (c.1500–500 BCE) with 9 Olmec relief panels outside Gulf heartland (Grove).
🇷🇺 Russia · Rock art
Iron Age to Medieval · Pazyryk-Scythian, Xiongnu, Turkic, Mongol
Kosh-Agach Chuya steppe 1750 m with 800 petroglyphs, Pazyryk deer-stone stag and 80-ibex super-panel.
🇸🇴 Somaliland · Rock art
Neolithic pastoral to Recent (2500 BCE–1000 CE) · Pastoral Cushitic → Somali
Gorge system of 10 shelters with Somaliland's most naturalistic pastoral bovines, giraffes and elongated humans.
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient village
Mississippian (c.1050–1250 CE) Early–Middle Mississippian Stirling phase · Mississippian (Cahokia)
The Mitchell Site (11S2) is a Middle Mississippian mound-and-village suburb of Greater Cahokia on the Horseshoe Lake meander opposite Collinsville, Illinois.
🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan · Rock art
Bronze Age to Medieval · Andronovo, Saka, Wusun, Turkic
West cirque of Saimaluu-Tash at 3120 m with 1072 boulders, Andronovo ploughing and shaman processions.
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient village
Sinagua (c.1100–1250 CE) Northern Sinagua – Cohonina transition · Northern Sinagua
Walnut Canyon National Monument preserves 300+ Northern Sinagua cliff dwellings (c.1100–1250 CE) set in shallow alcoves under the Kaibab Limestone rim of a 122m-deep canyon 12 km east of Flagstaff,…