Late Antique Era

200 CE – 700 CE · 44 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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Country Record

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.

HellenisticRomanLate Antique

The domed exterior of Hagia Sophia with its Ottoman minarets, Istanbul, Turkey

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Country Record

Oldest Monument in Türkiye

Hagia Sophia

532 CE – 1453 CE

The supreme achievement of Byzantine architecture — a vast domed basilica built by the emperor Justinian in Constantinople in just five years and completed in 537 CE, its 31-metre dome seeming to float on a ring of windows. For nearly a thousand years it was the largest enclosed space and greatest cathedral in the Christian world, before becoming a mosque, a museum, and a mosque again.

Late AntiqueByzantineOttoman

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Continent Record

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.

RomanLate Antique

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Country Record

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.

Pre-ColumbianClassicalRoman

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Continent Record

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.

Iron AgeClassicalHellenistic

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Country Record

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.

ClassicalHellenisticRoman

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Continent Record

Oldest Complex in Europe

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.

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

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Continent Record

Oldest City 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.

Pre-ColumbianClassicalRoman

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

Country Record

Oldest Complex 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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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