Browse by form
Browse sanctuaries, sacred precincts, and ceremonial landscapes built for worship, procession, offerings, and encounters with the divine.
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
Largest religious structure ever built by area. A microcosm of Hindu cosmology, later converted to Buddhist use.
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003
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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004
Plain studded with over 2,000 surviving Buddhist temples. The kingdom that built it was sacked by Mongol forces.
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005
Pink sandstone temple with carving so fine and intricate it is sometimes called "the art gallery of Angkor."
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006
216 carved stone faces stare from 54 towers at the centre of Angkor Thom. Whose faces, exactly, is still debated.
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007
Monumental Mahayana Buddhist sanctuary arranged as a rising sequence of terraces, relief galleries, perforated stupas, and a central dome.
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008
Chola dynasty temple in Thanjavur. Its 80-tonne capstone was reportedly hauled up a six-kilometre earthen ramp.
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009
Truncated pyramid temple on the slopes of Mount Lawu. Erotic reliefs and Mesoamerican-looking architecture in central Java.
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010
Andean ceremonial centre with a network of stone galleries beneath. The Lanzón monolith stands inside, never exposed to sunlight.
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011
Best-preserved Elamite ziggurat. Built by Untash-Napirisha, then partially destroyed by Ashurbanipal of Assyria.
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012
Classical colonnaded temple within Armenia's Garni fortress. An earthquake brought it down in 1679, and anastylosis reassembled surviving stones in the 1970s.
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013
Older than Stonehenge and the pyramids. Megalithic temples on Gozo built when, by legend, giants walked the islands.
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014
T-shaped megalithic enclosures predating agriculture, pottery, and writing. Deliberately buried by its builders around 8000 BCE.
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015
Built from globigerina limestone, including a single block weighing 20 tonnes. Now sheltered beneath a tensile membrane roof.
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016
Justinian's basilica. Cathedral, mosque, museum, mosque again. The dome's design baffled engineers for centuries.
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017
Largest temple in ancient Korea, with a nine-storey wooden pagoda 80 metres tall. Burned by the Mongols in 1238.
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018
Sandstone butte with a freestanding pinnacle, sacred to Egyptians and Kushites alike. Temples to Amun cut into its cliff base.
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019
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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020
Cluster of Hindu and Jain temples covered in intricate sculpture, including the famously erotic carvings on the outer walls.
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021
Stone chariot of the sun god Surya, drawn by seven horses on twelve carved wheels. Each wheel is also a working sundial.
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022
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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023
Pallava-era seaside temples and rock-cut monuments, including Arjuna's Penance, one of the largest open-air bas-reliefs in the world.
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024
Hindu temple complex of the Champa kingdom. Heavy bombing damage during the Vietnam War levelled the central tower group.
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025
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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026
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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027
Trio of Hindu spires dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma. Toppled by an earthquake in the 16th century, partially restored.
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028
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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029
Limestone temple east of the Sphinx, built from blocks weighing up to 100 tonnes. Never finished, function debated.
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030
Khmer temple intentionally left swallowed by silk-cotton trees. Roots and stone are now structurally inseparable.
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031
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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032
One of the Seven Wonders. Burned by an arsonist in 356 BCE on the night Alexander the Great was born. A single column survives.
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033
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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034
Construction took over 600 years. Once the largest temple in Greece; only fifteen of its 104 colossal columns remain standing.
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035
Eight surviving columns at the western end of the Forum. Once held the Roman state treasury.
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036
Stepped pyramid covered in carvings of feathered serpents and storm-gods. Excavations beneath revealed sacrificial burials.
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037
Aztec capital and twin pyramid, dismantled by the Spanish to build Mexico City on top of it. Excavated since 1978.
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038
Granite-lined temple beside the Sphinx and part of Khafre's pyramid complex. Its surviving halls and statue sockets point to a central role in the royal funerary cult.
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039
Three-tiered Armenian cathedral that collapsed in the 10th century. Its ruined drum was the inspiration for the cathedral of Ani.
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