Late Antique Era

200 CE – 700 CE · 50 sites

All sites in this period

Continent Record

Most-Visited Ancient Site in Asia

Great Wall of China

700 BCE – 1644 CE

The vast frontier fortification system of northern China — rammed-earth Qin walls and the iconic stone Ming battlements — remains the single most conspicuous monumental gap left in a global archaeological atlas.

933

Iron AgeClassicalImperial China

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Oldest City in Jordan

Petra

300 BCE – 700 CE

Petra, the Nabataean capital from ~300 BCE to 700 CE, is famed for its rock-cut tombs and sophisticated water system, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the New Seven Wonders.

322

HellenisticRomanLate Antique

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Northernmost Known Site in Europe

Hadrian's Wall

122 CE – 410 CE

Hadrian's Wall, built AD 122 at the Roman Empire's northern frontier in Britain, stretched 73 miles across the island and served as a military boundary until Roman withdrawal around AD 410.

322

RomanLate Antique

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Earliest Known Site in Mexico

Teotihuacan

100 BCE – 650 CE

Teotihuacan, the 'City of the Gods,' was a vast metropolis and ceremonial center in central Mexico, dominating Mesoamerica from 100 BCE to 650 CE.

322

Pre-ColumbianClassicalRoman

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Most-Visited Ancient Site in Africa

Carthage

814 BCE – 700 CE

Ancient Phoenician city-state that became Rome's greatest rival, later reborn as a Roman metropolis, embodying over a millennium of Mediterranean history.

422

Iron AgeClassicalHellenistic

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Longest Recorded History in Peru

Nazca Lines

500 BCE – 500 CE

The Nazca Lines, vast geoglyphs etched into Peru’s desert, date from c. 500 BCE–500 CE and remain one of archaeology’s most intriguing legacies of ancient monumental art.

222

ClassicalHellenisticRoman

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Oldest Complex in Italy

Roman Forum

500 BCE – 600 CE

The political, religious, and commercial heart of ancient Rome, continuously inhabited from the 7th century BCE to the 7th century CE, now one of the world's most iconic archaeological landscapes.

322

ClassicalHellenisticRoman

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 Dome of the Rock and Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem

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Known by the Most Names in Israel

Old City of Jerusalem

1000 BCE – 1900 CE

The walled heart of Jerusalem — roughly one square kilometre sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — where the Western Wall, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and Dome of the Rock stand within Ottoman-era ramparts and layers of Iron Age, Roman, Byzantine, and medieval archaeology.

211

Iron AgeClassicalHellenistic

Rock-cut Buddhist cave monasteries at Ajanta, cut into a horseshoe-shaped gorge, Maharashtra, India

Country Record

Earliest Known Site in India

Ajanta Caves

200 BCE – 480 CE

The greatest gallery of Buddhist art in the ancient world — 30 rock-cut caves carved into a horseshoe-shaped gorge in Maharashtra, containing murals and sculptures produced from the 2nd century BCE to the 6th century CE. The Gupta-period paintings (4th–5th century CE) in Caves 1, 2, 16, and 17 are among the finest figurative paintings to survive from antiquity anywhere in the world, comparable to the frescoes of Pompeii and the mosaics of Byzantine Ravenna.

ClassicalLate Antique

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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.

421

Late AntiqueEarly MedievalHigh Medieval

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Earliest Known Site in North America

Tikal

400 BCE – 900 CE

Tikal, a preeminent Maya city in Guatemala, flourished from c. 400 BCE to 900 CE as a political, economic, and ceremonial hub, boasting towering temples and extensive urban infrastructure in the Petén rainforest.

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Pre-ColumbianClassicalRoman