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The catalogue
9,978 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 · Hydraulic works
Sasanian (Shapur I–II) · Sasanian Persian
180-m Sasanian gravity dam (240–380 CE) on Minab tributary — 300,000 m³ for Minab palms.
🇵🇰 Pakistan · Ancient city
Kushan 1st–3rd c CE → Gupta → Hepthalite 5th c · Kushan Gandhara (Taxila valley)
Sirsukh — last great city of Taxila (late 1st c CE–mid 5th c CE) 2 km NE Sirkap, Taxila valley, founded under Kushan Kujula Kadphises/Kanishka after 80 CE.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Early Bronze to Old Babylonian (Ebla to Hammurabi) · Semitic Ebla-Mari–Akkadian world, Dagan cult
Holy city of god Dagan at Euphrates-Balikh mouth, tell Bi'a = Early Dynastic Tuttul (c.2600–1700 BCE) where Ebla tablets locate Dagan's oracle and Sargon of Akkad stopped for blessing.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient village
Halaf-Ubaid to Early Bronze (5500–3000 BCE; peak LC 3800–3300 BCE) · Halaf-Ubaid → Late Chalcolithic Euphrates → Uruk fringe
Euphrates Ubaid–Uruk terrace tell with tripartite elite hall and wall painting.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Late Chalcolithic (LC4-5) pre-Uruk to Jemdet Nasr · Upper Tigris LC culture (Uruk-extended / local transcaucasian)
Siirt ‘royal’ chalcolithic cemetery (3500–3000 BCE) with retainer burials — copper, lapis and earliest gaming set at Uruk fringe, Upper Tigris inequality origin.
🇦🇫 Afghanistan · Ancient city
Greco-Bactrian 2nd c BCE → Kushan 1st–3rd c CE → Sassanid sack 245 CE · Greco-Bactrian → Kushan (Kapisa capital) — Gandhara-Silk Road
Begram Bagram Kushan City — ancient Kapisa (Kapisha), summer capital of Kushan Empire (1st–3rd c CE) at Panjshir–Ghorband confluence 50 km NE Kabul, excavated 1923–40 by J. Hackin and R.
🇯🇵 Japan · Tumulus
Middle Kofun 5th c CE (Yamato apex) · Yamato middle Kofun (Mozu group)
Daisenryo Kofun — largest kofun in Japan (486 m long, 35 m high) and one of world's largest tombs (equal Great Pyramid footprint), built mid 5th c CE (c.425–475) for Emperor Nintoku per tradition, on…
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
500 BCE–1542 CE (Preclassic through Postclassic to Contact; apogee CIassical 600–950) · Maya (northwestern Yucatán, Dzibilchaltún polity)
Northern Maya lowland megasite spanning 17 km² (largest in Yucatán by area, 8,400 structures, 1,300 vaulted buildings) occupied extraordinarily from Middle Preclassic 500 BCE to Conquest ~1542 CE…
🇵🇸 Palestine · Ancient city
Late Hasmonaean to Byzantine (3rd c. BCE Mount — Herodian peak 23 BCE–4 BCE) · Herodian (Judaean client of Rome) → Zealot → Roman → Bar Kokhba → Byzantine monastery
Herod's artificial volcano citadel with 350 m pool-garden and recently discovered royal mausoleum.
🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Sothi → Mature → Late Harappan / OCP 3000–1500 BCE · Indus Valley (Sothi–Harappan Eastern Domain)
Key Indus Eastern Domain type-site (c.3000–1500 BCE) on the Drishadvati–Sarasvati divide at Bhiwani, Haryana — two mounds (A 23 ha citadel, B 10 ha lower town) excavated 1968 by Suraj Bhan revealing…
🇲🇽 Mexico · Pyramid
Late Classic Maya (600–850 CE, Rio Bec style full fluorescence) · Maya (Rio Bec, Apogee of Classic palace-pyramid)
Type-site of Rio Bec architectural style (550–850 CE): dispersed low pyramids 10–20 m with twin solid towers and false stairs, vaulted palace chambers, and roofcombs — Structure V (5N2 Group A) is…
🇧🇿 Belize · Pyramid
Preclassic to Late Classic (550 BCE–950 CE) · Maya (Mountain Cow lowland–highland)
Apex of Belize's largest Maya city (550 BCE–950 CE, Classic peak 562–800 CE) covering 200 km² and defeating Tikal in 562 CE (Altar 21).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Neolithic through Iron; Amuq A-J typology · Amuq Neolithic → Halaf → Ubaid → EBA → Syro-Hittite
Amuq type-site mound defining Amuq A–J phases (Neolithic–Iron) — 22 m deposit with Neolithic painted ware, Ninevite V and Iron Syro-Hittite ceramics.
🇵🇪 Peru · Pyramid
Late Preceramic (Norte Chico late) · Cotton Preceramic / Andean late hunter-gatherer-fishers
Late Preceramic mega-pyramid El Paraíso (Chuquitanta) 3500–1800 BCE: 58 ha cotton-preceramic city, Unit I 45×45 m shicra-bag pampas pyramid — largest Preceramic pyramid Americas.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Early Bronze to Iron Age (3000–700 BCE; peak MBA colony and Hittite Empire) · Hattian / Assyrian colony → Old Hittite → Hittite Empire → Phrygian
Alaca plain tell with Assyrian colony, Hittite gold treasure and EB Alaca-culture tombs.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Middle Woodland (Hopewell) · Hopewell (Ohio Hilltop)
Hopewell hilltop enclosure (100 BCE–400 CE) on Baker Fork gorge — 2.4-km wall with 33 gates.
🇧🇸 Bahamas · Cave
Pseudoarchaeology 1886 claim (Le Plongeon 12,000 BCE Atlantis vs Jurassic 100 Ma reef) · Le Plongeon–Berlitz Atlantis school
Bahama Bank 4-km carbonate escarpment claimed as Atlantis fort wall — natural 100 Myr reef platform wall.
🇯🇵 Japan · Ancient village
Jomon 6000–1800 BCE (Early to Final) stratified · Jomon (Kanto)
132 m Kanto Jomon shell midden — 5× stratified with 35 pit houses on Musashino (Mizuko, 6000–1800 BCE).
🇪🇬 Egypt · Pyramid
Old Kingdom, late 3rd–early 4th Dynasty · Ancient Egyptian
Massive unfinished step pyramid north of Giza known as Layer Pyramid or Great Excavation, situated at Zawyet el-Aryan between Giza and Abusir.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Pyramid
Old Kingdom, late 6th Dynasty · Ancient Egyptian
Largest and best-preserved of Pepi II's three queen pyramids at South Saqqara (6th Dynasty, late Old Kingdom), excavated by Gustav Jéquier 1926–32.
🇨🇳 China · Pyramid
Tang Dynasty (Gaozong + Wu Zetian reigns 649–705; tomb built 684–706) · Tang Chinese
Unique mountain tomb leveraging natural 1047 m limestone hill Liangshan as pyramidal mass (natural hill shaped then faced), topped no artificial pile but mountain tomb representing Chinese 'mountain…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Ubaid through Early Dynastic to Akkadian (5000–2300 BCE) · Sumerian (Lagash / Girsu)
Tell al-Hiba — Lagash Mound in Dhi Qar Governorate, Al-Hiba (ancient Lagash), Iraq is a Ubaid through Early Dynastic to Akkadian (5000–2300 BCE) pyramid/mound site attributed to Sumerian (Lagash /…
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Kurgan
Early Saka to Wusun Transition · Saka–Wusun
Zhetytobe south: 6 adobe-ring Saka kurgans 3 km south of Seven Hills core, Turkestan Ridge.
🇮🇳 India · Ancient village
Ahar-Banas Chalcolithic 3000–1500 BCE · Ahar-Banas Ahar ware — type-site defining culture
Ahar Dhulkot Mound — eponymous Ahar-Banas Chalcolithic type-site (3000–1500 BCE) on Ahar River at Udaipur's eastern edge, excavated 1961–62 by H.D. Sankalia (Deccan College) and R.C. Agrawal.
