swap_horiz Erlitou Alternatives

1

Mogao Caves

The Mogao Caves represent a significant archaeological site in northwestern China. Constructed between the 4th and 14th...

China Buddhist Silk Road Cave Art

9.1 Excellent

2

Longmen Grottoes

Buddhist rock-cut grottoes near Luoyang, China, primarily carved during the Northern Wei and Tang dynasties (5th–8th cen...

China Buddhist Cave Art Northern Wei

8.8 Great

3

Akrotiri

Akrotiri is a highly preserved Bronze Age Minoan settlement located on the Greek island of Santorini, buried by a catast...

Volcanic Greece Bronze Age Santorini

8.8 Great

4

Yungang Grottoes

Series of Buddhist cave temples near Datong, China, carved between 460 and 525 CE under Northern Wei patronage and featu...

China 5TH Century Buddhist Cave Art

8.6 Great

5

Mycenae

Mycenae is a Bronze Age citadel in the Peloponnese, Greece, that gave its name to Mycenaean civilization (c. 1600–1100 B...

Fortified Greece Bronze Age Mycenaean

8.5 Great

6

Sanxingdui

Bronze Age site in Sichuan, China, first excavated in 1986, revealing a previously unknown civilization through spectacu...

China Ritual Bronze Age Sichuan

8.5 Great

7

Knossos

Knossos on Crete is the largest Bronze Age palace site in the Aegean, associated with Minoan civilization and first exte...

Labyrinth Bronze Age Crete Minoan

8.3 Great

8

Harappa

Major urban center of the Indus Valley Civilization in present-day Pakistan, flourishing c. 2600–1900 BCE and notable fo...

Urban Bronze Age Pakistan Indus Valley

8.2 Great

9

Zhoukoudian

Cave site near Beijing, China, where Homo erectus fossils dating back roughly 700,000 years were discovered in the 1920s...

China Paleolithic Cave Homo Erectus

8.2 Great

10

Mawangdui

Han dynasty tomb complex near Changsha, China, excavated in 1972–1974, yielding a remarkably well-preserved female mummy...

China Tombs 2ND Century Bce Han Dynasty

8.2 Great

11

Yin Ruins (Anyang)

Last capital of China's Shang Dynasty in Henan, occupied c. 1300–1046 BCE and the site where oracle bone inscriptions—th...

China Capital Bronze Age Shang Dynasty

8.0 Great

12

Byblos

Byblos on the Lebanese coast is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, a major Phoenician port wh...

Coastal Trading Bronze Age Lebanon

7.5 Good

13

Liangzhu

Late Neolithic site near Hangzhou, China (c. 3300–2300 BCE), noted for sophisticated jade bi discs and cong tubes; inscr...

China Urban Neolithic Jade

7.5 Good

14

Ugarit (Ras Shamra)

Bronze Age port city on the Syrian coast (c. 1450–1185 BCE) where excavations beginning in 1929 revealed one of the earl...

Bronze Age Syria Levant Alphabetic

7.5 Good

15

Megiddo

Strategically located Canaanite and Israelite city in northern Israel, occupied from c. 7000 BCE, site of numerous ancie...

Israel Fortified Bronze Age Canaanite

7.5 Good

16

Jiahu

Neolithic site in Henan, China, occupied c. 7000–5700 BCE and notable for yielding some of the world's earliest bone flu...

China Neolithic 7000BCE Flutes

7.3 Good

17

Mari (Tell Hariri)

Ancient Mesopotamian city on the Euphrates in Syria (c. 2900–1759 BCE) whose palace archive of some 25,000 cuneiform tab...

Syria Mesopotamian Euphrates Palatial

7.3 Good

18

Jarlshof

Jarlshof is a multi-period archaeological site in Shetland, Scotland, featuring continuous settlement from the Bronze Ag...

Scotland Bronze Age Shetland Norse

7.3 Good

19

Hazor

Largest Canaanite city-state in ancient Canaan, located in northern Israel, flourishing in the Middle Bronze Age and ref...

Israel Fortified Bronze Age Levant

7.2 Good

20

Palace of Nestor (Pylos)

The Palace of Nestor is a prominent Mycenaean palace near Pylos, Greece, destroyed by fire around 1200 BC, which preserv...

Greece Bronze Age Mycenaean Palatial

6.9 Fair