Ancient Library / Research
The atlas shows where the sites are. These researched histories explain what happened there, what survives, and where the evidence still leaves room for questions.
001
Two rock-cut temples for Ramesses II. In the 1960s, the entire complex was sawed apart and relocated to escape Lake Nasser.
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002
Thirty Buddhist rock-cut caves, painted with murals that survive thanks to the dry climate and centuries of obscurity.
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003
A Bronze Age Cycladic town on Thera buried by volcanic deposits in the late 17th century BCE. Streets, multi-storey buildings, frescoes, and household objects survive.
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004
Capital of the Aksumite kingdom, linked by Red Sea trade to Arabia and the Mediterranean. Monumental stelae, royal tombs, inscriptions, and coins record its power.
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005
A Roman municipium at present-day Šćitarjevo near Zagreb, where excavations reveal streets, baths, houses, and a settlement shaped by the Sava River.
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006
Largest religious structure ever built by area. A microcosm of Hindu cosmology, later converted to Buddhist use.
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007
Greek-Roman city with a stadium for 30,000 and a school of marble sculpture supplying the empire.
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008
A fortified Bronze Age settlement in the southern Urals, built from two rings of dwellings with defensive walls, a ditch, workshops, and planned entrances.
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009
A Liburnian settlement near Benkovac that became a Roman town, preserving massive walls, gates, cemeteries, inscriptions, and traces of changing local power.
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010
Largest prehistoric stone circle in Europe, surrounding an entire village. Easier to overlook than Stonehenge, and bigger.
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011
Roman sanctuary built on a monumental terrace in the Bekaa Valley. The Temple of Jupiter and its colossal substructure made Baalbek one of the ancient Mediterranean's grandest sacred complexes.
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012
Mesopotamian capital under Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar II. Severely damaged by US military base construction in 2003–2004.
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013
Plain studded with over 2,000 surviving Buddhist temples. The kingdom that built it was sacked by Mongol forces.
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014
Two colossal standing Buddhas carved into a sandstone cliff, dynamited by the Taliban in 2001. The empty niches remain.
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015
Sneferu's experiment in geometry. The angle changes mid-build, evidence of structural concerns mid-construction.
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016
Monumental Mahayana Buddhist sanctuary arranged as a rising sequence of terraces, relief galleries, perforated stupas, and a central dome.
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017
A Roman military camp above the Krka River, with a command centre, exercise ground, basilica, and the only known Roman military amphitheatre in Croatia.
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018
Long-inhabited Mediterranean port with Neolithic, Bronze Age, Phoenician, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, and later layers. Royal inscriptions preserve early Phoenician alphabetic writing.
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019
Largest known pre-Columbian city north of Mexico, organised around neighbourhoods, plazas, timber monuments, and immense earthworks including Monks Mound.
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020
Major Classic Maya capital in the forests of Campeche and a long-standing rival of Tikal. Its monuments record dynastic alliances, warfare, and political change.
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021
Major Maya city in western Belize whose roads, reservoirs, homes, monuments, and Caana complex extend far beyond the cleared ceremonial centre.
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022
One of the earliest known urban centres in the Americas, with monumental platform mounds, sunken circular courts, residences, and evidence of exchange between coast and valley.
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023
Phoenician maritime power, demolished by Rome in 146 BCE. Rebuilt as a Roman city, sacked again, rebuilt again.
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024
Large Neolithic settlement of closely packed mud-brick houses, generally entered through the roof, with no ordinary streets between the buildings.
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025
Ceremonial centre with great houses aligned to lunar standstills. Connected to outliers by 650+ kilometres of engineered roads.
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026
Largest pre-Columbian city in the Americas, built entirely of adobe. Walls bear repeating patterns of seabirds and waves.
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027
A Greek-founded city in Crimea with an orthogonal plan, vineyard land, public buildings, Roman and Byzantine layers, and a long urban life.
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028
Best-preserved Elamite ziggurat. Built by Untash-Napirisha, then partially destroyed by Ashurbanipal of Assyria.
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029
Maya city near the modern Honduran-Guatemalan border. Its Hieroglyphic Stairway is the longest known Maya text.
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030
Enormous keyhole-shaped burial mound traditionally associated with Emperor Nintoku. Three moats surround it, and restricted access has left much of its interior unexcavated.
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031
Eighteen-level subterranean city in Cappadocia, descending 85 metres. Sheltered up to 20,000 people during Arab–Byzantine raids.
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032
Roman emperor's retirement complex, now the lived-in core of the city of Split. Cellars, peristyle, and mausoleum still in use.
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033
Around 900 monumental figures carved by Rapa Nui communities, many representing ancestors. Numerous moai once stood on ceremonial ahu and were later toppled; several have since been re-erected.
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034
Maya stepped pyramid dedicated to Kukulkan. Near the equinoxes, light and shadow create a serpent-like pattern beside the northern stairway; its precise ancient meaning remains debated.
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035
Third-largest Roman amphitheatre, larger than what survives of the Colosseum. Capacity 35,000, in a small town in the Tunisian interior.
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036
Greek and Roman metropolis, once a port. Silting moved the harbour seven kilometres inland, killing the city.
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037
Early southern Mesopotamian settlement built around a long sequence of temples. Later Sumerian tradition remembered Eridu as the first city to receive kingship.
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038
The late Roman palace and memorial complex built for Emperor Galerius in eastern Serbia, with fortifications, temples, baths, mosaics, and imperial mausoleums.
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039
T-shaped megalithic enclosures predating agriculture, pottery, and writing. Deliberately buried by its builders around 8000 BCE.
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040
A vast adobe pyramid enlarged in repeated stages within one of Mesoamerica's longest-lived cities. It now forms a hill crowned by the church of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios.
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041
The last surviving wonder of the ancient world. It is generally understood to have been built as Pharaoh Khufu's tomb and stood as the world's tallest human-made structure for roughly 3,800 years.
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042
Monumental limestone figure with a lion's body and human head, carved largely from the Giza bedrock. It is usually associated with Khafre, though details of its commission remain debated.
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043
Largest stone structure in sub-Saharan Africa before colonialism. European colonists refused to credit African builders for over a century.
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044
Capital of the Vijayanagara empire, spread among granite hills with temples, markets, waterworks, palaces, and fortified royal enclosures.
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045
Major Indus city whose excavations helped define the civilisation now named after it. Standardised bricks, weights, seals, drainage, and craft production linked it to a vast regional network.
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046
Parthian-era walled city in the desert that twice withstood Roman sieges. Damaged by ISIS in 2015.
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047
Capital of the Hittite empire. Cuneiform tablets here recorded one of the earliest international peace treaties, with Ramesses II.
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048
Wealthier neighbour of Pompeii, buried in pyroclastic flow that carbonised wood, papyrus, and food. Some scrolls are still being read by particle accelerator.
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049
Ancestral Puebloan towers on the Utah-Colorado border. Oriented to track solstices through tiny portholes.
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050
Three-level subterranean necropolis carved entirely by hand from limestone. Acoustic chambers tuned to specific frequencies.
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051
A Greek colony on Vis with a terraced city, harbour, walls, theatre, cemeteries, coins, and underwater finds across the protected bay.
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052
One of the best-preserved Roman provincial cities. The colonnaded Cardo still bears chariot ruts in its paving.
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053
A sixth-century Byzantine city at Caričin Grad with walls, churches, a palace, streets, baths, and a remarkably short urban life.
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054
Carved top-down from a single basalt cliff. An estimated 200,000 tonnes of rock removed by hand.
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055
Pre-Pottery Neolithic settlement in the Şanlıurfa region, with domestic areas, T-shaped pillars, carved figures, and communal buildings cut partly into the bedrock.
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056
Vast temple complex expanded by generations of Egyptian rulers. Its Great Hypostyle Hall contains 134 columns, the tallest rising about 21 metres.
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057
Largest Bronze Age Minoan site. Heavily reconstructed by Arthur Evans in the early 1900s, sometimes with creative liberties.
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058
Eleven churches hewn downward from solid rock. Connected by a network of tunnels and trenches still in liturgical use.
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059
A long-lived settlement on the Danube known for trapezoid houses, organised communal spaces, burials, fishing, and monumental stone sculptures.
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060
Roman city under emperor Septimius Severus, who was born there. Spectacularly preserved, with security concerns limiting visitors.
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061
Temple complex built principally under Amenhotep III and Ramesses II. A ceremonial avenue of human-headed sphinxes connected it with Karnak.
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062
Inca royal estate on a 2,430-metre ridge, with terraces, residences, ritual spaces, and finely fitted stonework adapted to steep mountain terrain.
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063
An unexcavated earthen pyramid. The Terracotta Army guards its perimeter; the tomb itself remains sealed.
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064
The richly furnished Early Bronze Age burial of Oshad, excavated in 1897 with gold, silver, animal figures, vessels, and evidence of far-reaching connections.
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065
Ancestral Pueblo landscape of mesa-top villages, farms, and later cliff dwellings built within sandstone alcoves. Descendant Pueblo communities remain connected to the region.
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066
Indus Valley city with grid streets, a covered drainage system, and the Great Bath. Its script remains undeciphered.
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067
A large Bronze Age hillfort near Rovinj, enclosed by three dry-stone walls and connected to the northern Adriatic and wider Mediterranean.
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068
Zapotec capital, levelled atop a flattened mountaintop. The Danzantes carvings depict mutilated captives.
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069
Funerary sanctuary of King Antiochus I of Commagene, centred on a great summit tumulus and terraces lined with colossal figures of gods and royal ancestors.
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070
Late Bronze Age citadel with massive fortifications, royal shaft graves, palace remains, and the Lion Gate's monumental relief above its entrance.
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071
Ceremonial and political centre built across nearly one hundred artificial basalt islets off Pohnpei, linked by tidal channels and enclosed compounds.
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072
Vast network of desert geoglyphs made by clearing dark surface stones. Straight lines, geometric forms, and figures such as a hummingbird, monkey, and spider cross the plateau.
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073
The principal centre of the Histri, later rebuilt as a Roman city above Istria's Budava Bay, with walls, graves, baths, and basilicas still visible.
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074
Passage tomb older than the Giza pyramids. For about 17 minutes at winter solstice, sunlight illuminates the inner chamber.
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075
Assyrian capital under Ashurnasirpal II. Famously bulldozed and dynamited by ISIS in 2015; reconstruction efforts ongoing.
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076
Last capital of the Neo-Assyrian empire, sacked by a coalition. Its library contained the Epic of Gilgamesh.
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077
Bronze Age Nuragic stronghold centred on a stone tower and later surrounded by additional towers, walls, and a village of circular houses.
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078
Royal Inca estate of Pachacuti, then last stronghold of Manco Inca's resistance. Six pink granite monoliths weighing 50 tonnes each remain unfinished on Temple Hill.
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079
Rome's port, abandoned as the coastline shifted. Three-storey apartment blocks (insulae) survive intact.
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080
Caravan oasis between Rome and Persia. Significant portions destroyed in 2015–2017; partial restoration is ongoing.
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081
Hadrianic reconstruction of an earlier Roman temple. Its vast coffered dome, open at the centre through an oculus, remains the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome.
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082
Temple of Athena Parthenos atop the Acropolis. Damaged by Venetian artillery in 1687 when it served as an Ottoman gunpowder store.
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083
Cyrus the Great's capital, including his austere limestone tomb. Visited and reportedly preserved by Alexander.
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084
Ceremonial capital of Achaemenid Persia. Burned by Alexander's army in 330 BCE, accidentally, drunkenly, or strategically depending on the source.
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085
Nabataean rock-cut city in the desert. Lost to the West for over a thousand years until Burckhardt entered it in 1812.
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086
A Greek-founded city on the Taman Peninsula with an acropolis, public buildings, necropolises, underwater remains, and more than a thousand years of change.
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087
The Greek foundation beneath modern Stari Grad on Hvar, established by settlers from Paros and preserved in fragments under a continuously inhabited town.
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088
Thousands of carved stone jars scattered across a high plateau. Heavily contaminated with unexploded ordnance from the Vietnam-era bombing.
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089
Roman city sealed by Vesuvius. Casts of victims, made by pouring plaster into voids in the ash, are themselves now historical artefacts.
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090
Concentric earthen ridges in Louisiana built by hunter-gatherers. Among the largest earthworks ever made by a non-agricultural society.
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091
Trio of Hindu spires dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma. Toppled by an earthquake in the 16th century, partially restored.
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092
Exceptionally well-preserved Roman amphitheatre whose complete outer wall retains two tiers of arches, an upper level, and four distinctive stair towers.
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093
Second-largest pyramid at Giza, still bearing remnants of its original limestone casing near the apex. Its funerary complex is closely associated with the Great Sphinx.
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094
Oval-based Puuc-style pyramid. Legend claims it was built in a single night by a dwarf hatched from an egg.
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095
Royal cemeteries of the Kingdom of Kush near Meroë. Roughly 140 pyramidal superstructures stand among more than 1,000 graves.
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096
Sneferu's large smooth-sided pyramid at Dahshur, built at a gentler angle after the Bent Pyramid. Its reddish core was once covered in white Tura limestone.
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097
Inca complex above Cusco with three monumental zigzag terraces of closely fitted polygonal masonry. It served ceremonial and political roles as well as providing a defensible position.
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098
Roman capital of Dalmatia. Birthplace of Diocletian and the largest Roman ruin field on the Croatian coast.
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099
Largest cluster of pre-Columbian megalithic statuary in South America. Hundreds of stone figures guarding burial mounds in the upper Magdalena valley.
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100
A Buddhist sacred complex founded under Ashoka and expanded for centuries. The Great Stupa, carved gateways, monasteries, temples, and inscriptions trace changing traditions of worship.
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101
Purpose-built granite grotto containing a monumental seated Buddha and sculpted attendants, arranged as a carefully designed Buddhist cave sanctuary.
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102
Royal palace and fortress on a 200-metre rock pillar, with frescoes of celestial maidens half-way up and a mirror wall once polished to a reflective sheen.
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103
The Roman city and fortress at the meeting of the Sava and Danube, with a legionary camp, streets, walls, baths, cemeteries, and layers beneath Belgrade.
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104
A fortified Bronze Age settlement in the southern Urals known for metalworking, complex burials, and some of the earliest well-attested spoke-wheeled chariots.
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105
A Roman city on the Sava and imperial centre of the late empire, with a palace, circus, baths, villas, mosaics, and streets beneath Sremska Mitrovica.
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106
Neolithic stone village in Orkney, exposed by an 1850 storm. Older than Stonehenge, with built-in stone furniture.
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107
The earliest colossal stone monument in Egypt, designed by Imhotep. Six stacked mastabas marking the genesis of pyramid building.
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108
Sarsen circle and bluestone arrangement on Salisbury Plain. The bluestones travelled 240 kilometres from the Preseli Hills.
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109
A Greek-founded port at the mouth of the Don that connected the Bosporan world with peoples and trade routes of the northern Black Sea steppe.
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110
Crossroads of Persian, Greek, Mauryan, and Buddhist culture. Site of one of the earliest universities in the world.
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111
Seat of the Pythia, oracle of the ancient world. Built atop a fissure venting hydrocarbon gases, possibly the source of her trances.
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112
Terraced mortuary temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, set against the cliffs and decorated with scenes of royal ritual, trade, and divine birth.
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113
Funerary pyramid of K'inich Janaab' Pakal, sealed for 1,300 years until Alberto Ruz Lhuillier opened the crypt in 1952.
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114
Aztec capital and twin pyramid, dismantled by the Spanish to build Mexico City on top of it. Excavated since 1978.
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115
One of the largest cities in the ancient Americas, organised around the Avenue of the Dead, massive pyramids, and planned residential districts.
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116
A major Maya political centre whose temples, palaces, plazas, reservoirs, and homes extend across the rainforest of northern Guatemala.
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117
Roman colony founded under Trajan with a formal street grid, forum, theatre, baths, and later expansion beyond its original plan. Its surviving layout makes Roman urban planning unusually legible.
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118
Pre-Inca capital on the Bolivian altiplano. The Gateway of the Sun is monolithic; the Akapana platform mound is the largest ever built in the region.
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119
Nine cities stacked on one hill. Heinrich Schliemann blasted through the lower layers in his hunt for Homeric Troy, destroying much of it.
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120
Bronze Age port whose archive of clay tablets revealed the Ugaritic alphabet, one of the earliest. Destroyed in the Late Bronze Age collapse.
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121
Sumerian city of the great ziggurat, traditionally linked to Abraham. Ziggurat partly restored under Saddam Hussein.
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122
One of the world's earliest large cities. Late fourth-millennium administrative tablets from Uruk preserve proto-cuneiform, among the earliest writing known.
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123
New Kingdom royal cemetery cut into the cliffs west of Luxor. More than sixty numbered tombs are known, including KV62, Tutankhamun's largely unplundered burial.
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124
A Roman city and legionary camp near the Danube, with an amphitheatre, baths, streets, frescoed tombs, and one of the region's largest excavated necropolises.
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125
A major Neolithic settlement on the Danube near Belgrade, with deep occupation layers, mud-and-timber houses, pottery, figurines, and long-distance trade.
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