Early Medieval Era

500 CE – 1000 CE · 33 sites

All sites in this period

World Record

Most-Visited Ancient Site in the World

Great Wall of China

700 BCE – 1644 CE

The largest defensive structure ever built by human hands — a sprawling system of walls, forts, and watchtowers stretching over 21,000 kilometres across northern China, constructed and rebuilt across more than two millennia by successive dynasties from the Warring States period through the Ming. Far more than a single wall, it represents the accumulated military engineering of an entire civilization defending its northern frontier against nomadic incursion.

Iron AgeClassicalImperial China

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Continent Record

Most-Visited Ancient Site in North America

Chichén Itzá

600 CE – 1200 CE

A major Maya-Toltec ceremonial center from 600–1200 CE, featuring the iconic stepped pyramid of Kukulcán and one of the largest ballcourts in Mesoamerica.

Pre-ColumbianEarly MedievalHigh Medieval

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Country Record

Oldest Temple in Indonesia

Borobudur

778 CE – 850 CE

Monumental 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Java, Indonesia, featuring nine stacked platforms with over 2,600 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues—the world's largest Buddhist temple.

Early Medieval

Kailasa Temple (Cave 16) at Ellora, carved from a single basalt outcrop, Maharashtra, India

Country Record

Longest Recorded History in India

Ellora Caves

100 BCE – 1100 CE

The world's largest rock-cut monastic and temple complex — 34 monasteries and shrines carved directly into a 2-kilometre basalt escarpment in Maharashtra, representing Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain traditions side by side. The Hindu Kailasa Temple (Cave 16), hewn from a single enormous rock in the 8th century CE, is the largest monolithic structure ever carved from stone and one of humanity's most audacious feats of rock-cut architecture.

ClassicalLate AntiqueEarly Medieval

The three main towers of Prambanan at sunset, Java

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Continent Record

Southernmost Known Site in Asia

Prambanan

850 CE – 930 CE

The largest Hindu temple complex in Southeast Asia, built on Java c. 850 CE, comprising 240 temples centered on three towers rising 47 m dedicated to Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.

Early Medieval

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Continent Record

Oldest Complex in North America

Mesa Verde

600 CE – 1300 CE

Mesa Verde, in Colorado, USA, preserves elaborate cliff dwellings built by the Ancestral Pueblo people between 1190 and 1280 CE, reflecting a sophisticated pre-Columbian society.

Late AntiqueEarly MedievalHigh Medieval

Reconstructed Sutton Hoo helmet with face mask, British Museum

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Country Record

Earliest Known Site in United Kingdom

Sutton Hoo

575 CE – 650 CE

The most spectacular archaeological discovery in British history — a royal Anglo-Saxon ship burial in Suffolk dating to around 625 CE whose treasure, including a magnificent iron helmet and gold regalia, transformed understanding of the so-called Dark Ages and may mark the grave of the king who inspired Beowulf.

Early Medieval

Continent Record

Northernmost Known Site in North America

L'Anse aux Meadows

990 CE – 1050 CE

The only confirmed Norse settlement in North America, L'Anse aux Meadows provides definitive evidence of pre-Columbian European contact, dating to around 1000 CE.

Early Medieval

The Carolingian octagon and Gothic choir of Aachen Cathedral, Germany

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Country Record

Oldest Monument in Germany

Aachen Cathedral

796 CE – 1414 CE

The oldest cathedral in northern Europe and Germany's first UNESCO World Heritage Site — built around 796–805 CE as Charlemagne's palace chapel. Its octagonal Carolingian core, modelled on the imperial churches of Byzantium and Ravenna, became the burial place of Charlemagne and the coronation church of German kings for some six hundred years.

Early MedievalHigh Medieval

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Longmen Grottoes

493 CE – 1127 CE

One of the greatest treasuries of Chinese Buddhist stone sculpture — more than 2,300 caves and niches cut into the limestone cliffs above the Yi River near Luoyang, holding over 100,000 carved images of the Buddha and bodhisattvas produced across four centuries. Begun by the Northern Wei dynasty around 493 CE and reaching its height under the Tang, its colossal Vairocana Buddha at the Fengxian Temple, some 17 metres tall, ranks among the supreme achievements of East Asian religious art.

Late AntiqueEarly MedievalMedieval

Country Record

Longest Recorded History in Japan

Tōdai-ji

728 CE – 800 CE

Tōdai-ji, founded in 728 CE, is a monumental Buddhist temple in Nara renowned for housing the colossal bronze Great Buddha and reflecting the zenith of imperial patronage during Japan's Nara period.

Early Medieval

Towering granite stelae (obelisks) at the Northern Stelae Field of Axum, Ethiopia

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Country Record

Longest Recorded History in Ethiopia

Axum

100 BCE – 940 CE

The capital of one of antiquity's great empires — a city of towering granite obelisks, royal tombs, and palaces rising in the highlands of northern Ethiopia. At the height of Aksumite power from the 1st to 7th centuries CE, Axum controlled trade routes linking the Mediterranean, Arabia, and sub-Saharan Africa, minted its own gold coins, and became one of the first states in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion.

ClassicalLate AntiqueEarly Medieval