Bronze Age Era

3300 BCE – 1200 BCE · 53 sites

Bronze Age archaeology is palaces, archives, and wrecked trade — then the Late Bronze collapse around 1200 BCE in the eastern Mediterranean. Pair this era filter with the collapse story and compare citadels across Anatolia, the Aegean, and the Levant.

All sites in this period

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World Record

Most-Visited Ancient Site in the World

Troy

3000 BCE – 500 CE

Nine settlement layers at Hisarlık in northwestern Türkiye, where Heinrich Schliemann dug for Homer's Troy and archaeologists still debate which level matches a historical war. UNESCO listed the site in 1998; renewed interest from epic film adaptations keeps new visitors comparing poetry with stone.

312

Iron AgeClassicalRoman

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Most-Visited Ancient Site in Europe

Stonehenge

3100 BCE – 1600 BCE

Stonehenge is a prehistoric megalithic monument in Wiltshire, England, erected in phases between 3100 and 1600 BCE. Its iconic sarsen stones and bluestones form a complex of ceremonial and astronomical significance.

332

NeolithicBronze Age

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Earliest Known Site in Iraq

Babylon

1894 BCE – 539 BCE

Capital of ancient Babylonia, Babylon flourished under Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar II, famed for its Hanging Gardens and Ishtar Gate, before falling to Persia in 539 BCE.

412

Bronze AgeIron Age

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Oldest Necropolis in Africa

Pyramids of Giza

2580 BCE – 2510 BCE

The Pyramids of Giza, monumental tombs of Old Kingdom pharaohs Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure, represent the zenith of ancient Egyptian architectural achievement and religious expression.

313

Bronze AgeDynastic Egypt

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Oldest City in Europe

Mycenae

1750 BCE – 1100 BCE

Citadel of Agamemnon in the Argolid, its Lion Gate and Grave Circles defining our image of Late Bronze Age Greece. Mycenae commanded the isthmus approaches to the Peloponnese and left Linear B archives, tholos tombs, and Cyclopean walls that Homer already called famous.

322

Bronze Age

The Stone Tower of Jericho (Tell es-Sultan), c. 8500 BCE — among the world's earliest stone monuments

Continent Record

Earliest Known Site in Asia

Jericho

9600 BCE – 700 CE

The world's oldest continuously inhabited city — a Neolithic settlement in the Jordan Valley where humans first built permanent stone structures and cultivated crops around 9600 BCE. The Tower of Jericho, erected by an early Neolithic community around 8500 BCE, is one of the earliest stone monuments on Earth, predating Stonehenge by more than 5,000 years and the Egyptian pyramids by more than 6,000.

NeolithicChalcolithicBronze Age

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Oldest Temple in Africa

Karnak

2055 BCE – 100 BCE

The Karnak Temple Complex, the largest religious site ever built, developed over two thousand years as the preeminent cult center of the god Amun-Ra, showcasing the architectural ambitions of dozens of pharaohs and the evolving political power of Thebes.

322

Bronze AgeIron AgeClassical

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Earliest Known Site in Egypt

Abu Simbel

1264 BCE – 1244 BCE

The twin rock temples of Abu Simbel, carved by Ramesses II (c. 1264–1244 BCE) in Nubia, showcase colossal statues and a celebrated solar alignment; they were famously relocated in the 1960s to escape the rising Lake Nasser.

422

Bronze AgeDynastic Egypt

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Longest Continuously Occupied Site in Syria

Palmyra

2000 BCE – 273 CE

Ancient oasis city in Syria, Palmyra was a crucial hub on the Silk Road, famed for its fusion of Greco-Roman and Persian architecture and the brief but dramatic reign of Queen Zenobia against Rome.

322

Bronze AgeIron AgeHellenistic

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Oldest Necropolis in Egypt

Valley of the Kings

1539 BCE – 1075 BCE

The Valley of the Kings, ancient Egypt's primary royal necropolis during the New Kingdom (c. 1539–1075 BCE), conceals over 60 elaborately decorated tombs, including that of Tutankhamun, revealing profound insights into pharaonic afterlife beliefs and funerary practices.

322

Bronze AgeDynastic Egypt

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Southernmost Known Site in Europe

Knossos

1900 BCE – 1100 BCE

Largest Bronze Age palace on Crete, centre of Minoan court life, fresco painting, and labyrinth myth. Arthur Evans's reconstructions remain controversial, yet the core of the West Court, Grand Staircase, and storage magazines reveals a complex that shaped how we picture Aegean prehistory.

422

Bronze Age

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Oldest City in Pakistan

Mohenjo-daro

2500 BCE – 1700 BCE

Mohenjo-daro, a principal urban center of the Indus Civilization (c. 2500–1700 BCE), exemplifies advanced Bronze Age urban planning in South Asia with sophisticated water management and standardized architecture.

322

Bronze Age