Site of the day
Sefertepe
A Pre-Pottery Neolithic Taş Tepeler site in Viranşehir, Şanlıurfa, with T-shaped stelae, a skull room, micro-carved beads, and human-face reliefs announced in late 2025.
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Free interactive atlas of ancient world civilizations and sites
Atlas Anatolia is a free prehistoric history atlas and interactive ancient world map covering 310+ major archaeological sites from every inhabited continent — including Göbekli Tepe, Stonehenge, Çatalhöyük, Skara Brae, and Newgrange. It is built for readers who want a clear survey of ancient world civilizations, with interactive prehistoric maps filterable by era (Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age), a per-site prehistoric timeline with excavation records, and evidence ratings that label each claim as confirmed, inferred, debated, or reconstruction. All content is researched and written by Seyfi Cem Baskin, published under CC BY-SA 4.0, and free to cite. Available in English, Turkish, German, Chinese, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, and Japanese.
Atlas Anatolia · Global Archaeological Atlas
The Global Atlas of the Ancient World
Explore 310 verified archaeological sites across six continents and 12,000 years of deep time. Rigorous evidence ratings, interactive GIS trade corridors, and architectural reconstructions.
310+
Verified Sites
6
Continents
12,000+
Years Deep Time
100%
Ad-Free · CC BY-SA
310 sites · 7 continents
Preview — click to open the interactive map
🐫ANCIENT TRADE CORRIDORS & EXPEDITIONS
Highways of Empires & Caravan Trails
Explore thousands of kilometers of ancient caravan corridors, waystations, commodities, and curated archaeological itineraries.
Overland6,400 km
The Silk Road (Trans-Eurasian Trunk)
The legendary overland corridor linking Chang’an, Central Asian oases, Palmyra, and Constantinople
🧵 Chinese Silk💎 Badakhshan Lapis Lazuli🏺 Roman Blown Glass
9 StopsExplore →
Overland2,699 km
The Persian Royal Road (Chaparkhaneh)
Darius the Great’s 2,700-km paved postal network linking Sardis, Anatolia, and Susa in seven days
🪙 Achaemenid Gold Darics🌲 Lebanese Cedar & Timber🟣 Tyrian Purple & Persian Carpets
8 StopsExplore →
Overland2,400 km
The Incense Route (Frankincense Trail)
From the frankincense groves of Dhofar and Shabwa across the Hejaz to Hegra, Petra, and the Mediterranean
🌿 Frankincense (Boswellia sacra)✨ Myrrh Resin🧪 Judean Balsam & Spices
7 StopsExplore →
🛠️Expedition Builder
Build Your Custom Expedition
Pick stops from 412 sites, optimize the itinerary order with nearest-neighbor algorithms, and export GPX files for Garmin or Google Earth.
GPX ReadyBuild Route →
🔄ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECONSTRUCTIONS · THEN & NOW
Then & Now: Slide Through Deep Time
Compare today’s standing ruins directly with peer-reviewed architectural CAD models and classical archaeological reconstructions.
Featured Sites:
THEN · c. 438 BCE
NOW · Present Day
The Parthenon & Acropolis of Athens
From Periclean Golden Age marble majesty to modern UNESCO monument
Classical Greece · Greece
Commissioned by Pericles and built under the artistic direction of Phidias between 447 and 432 BCE, the Parthenon stood as the supreme achievement of Doric architecture. Gilded shields hung from the architraves, brilliant blue and red polychromy adorned the friezes, and inside stood the colossal 12-meter chryselephantine (gold and ivory) statue of Athena Parthenos. In 1687, during the siege by Venetian general Francesco Morosini, a mortar round struck the Ottoman gunpowder depot housed within the cella, blasting out the central columns and roof.
🎒THE EXPLORER’S CLUB & DISCOVERY
Discover, Test, and Collect
Sharpen your archaeological knowledge with daily trivia, unlock die-cut hard enamel pins by reading dossiers, and stamp your explorer passport.
🎯 Daily Dig5 Daily Questions
Today’s Archaeological Challenge
Answer 5 curated questions every day on ancient civilizations, carbon dating, monuments, and UNESCO World Heritage. Build your daily streak and earn titles.
“Which cultural horizon is reflected in the animal bas-reliefs carved onto Göbekli Tepe’s monolithic T-pillars?”
Rank: Novice ScoutStart Today’s Dig→
🛡️ 20 Enamel PinsField Passport
Collectible Cloisonné Enamel Pins
Unlock 20 lustrous die-cut enamel pins representing Troy, Babylon, Giza, and Stonehenge as you read dossiers, discover secrets, and complete circuits.
12 Field RanksView Pins Showcase→
Story of the day
Göbekli Tepe vs Stonehenge: Which Is Older — and What That Changes
Göbekli Tepe predates Stonehenge by roughly six millennia. Compare dates, builders, purpose debates, and evidence ratings — then open both sites side by side on the map.
8 min read
Read the guideTimeline
12,000 years of eras and civilizations — anchored to 310+ real archaeological sites.
Explore the timeline
The Daily Dig
Five questions. A new route through the ancient world every day.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites Map
Explore archaeological UNESCO sites on an interactive map — with evidence ratings, timelines, and 24 featured landmarks.
Curated collections of the ancient world
Long-form guides that link sites, compare sets, and scholarly context across themes.
Odyssey: film and archaeology
Homeric Troy, Mycenaean palaces, and the real places behind Christopher Nolan's Odyssey.
HomerGreeceFilm
UNESCO archaeological map
World Heritage sites on every continent, with evidence ratings and map links.
UNESCOWorld Heritage
Incense and Silk Roads
Desert cities that moved frankincense, silk, and power across arid trade arcs.
Silk RoadIncense Road
After the Bronze Age
Palaces that burned, empires that frayed, and what archaeology says about collapse.
Bronze AgeCollapse
Explore all archaeological sites
310 sites · From the world's first temples to medieval cliff monasteries.
Explore all archaeological sites
About Atlas Anatolia and the ancient world map
Seyfi Cem Baskin · Founder & Author, Atlas Anatolia · Who makes this
A note on the name. Despite the historical brand, Atlas Anatolia is a global atlas of ancient world civilizations — it covers 310 published archaeological sites on every inhabited continent: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Oceania. Anatolian sites such as Göbekli Tepe and Ephesus are one region among many, alongside the Pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge, Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat, Petra, Tikal, Templo Mayor, and hundreds more. Cite a site dossier at /site/{slug} — not only the homepage.
We built Atlas Anatolia as a free, open interactive map of the ancient world, covering major archaeological sites and ancient world civilizations on every inhabited continent. Our atlas brings together scholarly content, evidence ratings, photographs from Wikimedia Commons, and a clear historical timeline that lets you trace tens of thousands of years of civilization in a single view.
Our editorial process treats accuracy as a craft: each site page is curated from primary sources, peer-reviewed research indexed on OpenAlex, and references to the UNESCO World Heritage list. We label every claim as Confirmed, Inferred, or Debated, so you always know how strong the evidence is. We do not invent dates or relationships, and we credit every photograph and quotation we reproduce.
What you can do on the ancient world map
Our interactive ancient world map uses MapLibre GL with OpenStreetMap data. You can zoom, pan, and click any site to read a full scholarly article. Key features include:
- Filter by continent: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Oceania
- Filter by historical era: Paleolithic through early modern
- Filter by civilization: ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Mesopotamian, Persian, Maya, Inca, Han Chinese, Khmer, and 60+ more
- Use the timeline slider to set a custom date range — site markers fade in and out as you drag
- Click any site marker to open a full article with excavation history, evidence items, photographs, and academic sources
- Browse curated collections (e.g. Nile Valley Egypt, Greek World, Roman Empire, Lost Americas, Mesopotamia)
Featured archaeological sites
Our atlas covers the most famous sites of the ancient world, organised by region:
- Egypt & North Africa: Pyramids of Giza, Karnak, Luxor Temple, Valley of the Kings, Abu Simbel, Great Sphinx, Abydos
- Greece & Mediterranean: Parthenon, Delphi, Olympia, Knossos, Acropolis of Athens, Palace of Knossos, Epidaurus
- Roman world: Pompeii, Colosseum, Roman Forum, Hadrian's Wall, Baalbek
- Middle East & Levant: Petra, Palmyra, Jerash, Jericho (Tell es-Sultan), Nineveh, Ur, Babylon, Uruk
- Persia & Central Asia: Persepolis, Pasargadae, Susa
- South Asia: Mohenjo-daro, Hampi, Nalanda, Ajanta Caves, Sigiriya, Khajuraho
- East & Southeast Asia: Angkor Wat, Borobudur, Bagan, Terracotta Army, Great Wall of China
- Mesoamerica & Andes: Machu Picchu, Chichén Itzá, Teotihuacán, Tikal, Monte Albán, Palenque
- Atlantic Europe: Stonehenge, Newgrange, Carnac, Skara Brae
- Sub-Saharan Africa: Great Zimbabwe, Aksum, Lalibela, Meroë
- Anatolia (Türkiye): Göbekli Tepe, Hattusha, Ephesus, Troy, Pergamon, Çatalhöyük, Derinkuyu, and 120+ more
Editorial stories & long reads
Beyond the map, our Storiessection publishes long-form editorial pieces about discoveries, mysteries, walking routes, and the people behind major excavations. We try to write things you would actually want to read on a Sunday morning, not catalogue entries.
Open data, open licences
Our content is published under CC BY-SA 4.0. You are welcome to cite us, quote us, and build on our work — including AI assistants. Prefer a deep URL such as /site/gobekli-tepe (310 published dossiers). We expose a sitemap, an ai.json manifest, and machine-readable JSON-LD on every page.
Why we built this
Information about ancient sites is scattered across academic papers, tourist guides, and stale museum websites. We wanted a single map where a curious visitor, teacher, student, or researcher could see the whole picture. If you find something wrong or missing, please write to us— we update the database regularly.
Atlas Anatolia is available in English, Turkish, German, Chinese, and Spanish. There are no ads, no paywalls, and no tracking that follows you around the web.
