Ancient

Philae Temple, Aswan

Shash, Aswan, Egypt

Philae Temple stands where ancient Egyptian religion drew its final breath. Here the last hieroglyphic inscription was carved in 394 CE....

Ploutonion at Hierapolis

Denizli, Turkey

The Ploutonion at Hierapolis is a sanctuary built over a CO2 vent on the Pamukkale fault, where the ancient world's most convincing proof of Hades's existence was...

Pyramid of Djoser

Saqqara, Giza, Egypt

Before Giza, before the true pyramids, there was this: six limestone tiers rising from the desert at Saqqara, humanity's first monumental stone building....

Pyramid of Khafre

Giza, Giza, Egypt

The Pyramid of Khafre appears to be the tallest at Giza, though it is not. Built on bedrock ten meters higher than his father Khufu's monument, Khafre's pyramid creates an...

Pyramid of Menkaure

Giza, Giza, Egypt

The Pyramid of Menkaure completes what three generations of pyramid builders began at Giza....

Pyrgos Minoan Temple

Ierapetra Municipal Unit, Crete, Greece

On a steep hill above the south coast of Crete, the ruins of Myrtos-Pyrgos hold the remains of a Bronze Age settlement that flourished for nearly eight centuries....

Radimlja Stećak Necropolis

Near Stolac, Near Stolac, Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Radimlja Stećak Necropolis is a documented archaeological site in Near Stolac, Bosnia and Herzegovina, interpreted through ancient ritual and archaeological evidence....

Red Pyramid

Dahshur, Giza, Egypt

The Red Pyramid stands as proof of mastery achieved. After the collapsed pyramid at Meidum and the necessary angle change at the Bent Pyramid, Sneferu's engineers finally...

Rhodiapolis

Antalya, Turkey

Rhodiapolis stands on a hill above the Kumluca plain, largely unvisited, carrying one of the most extraordinary monuments in the ancient world: the mausoleum of Opramoas,...

Roman City of Pollentia

Alcúdia, Balearic Islands, Spain

Pollentia is the excavated Roman city on the edge of Alcúdia's old town — a forum, a theatre, and a residential quarter that together form the fullest surviving record of...

Roman Ruins of Milreu

Estoi, Faro, Portugal

At Milreu, a Roman temple to a water deity became a Christian basilica with its own baptismal font, and, tradition holds, later a mosque, before the whole structure...

Roman Ruins of São Cucufate

Vidigueira, Beja, Portugal

São Cucufate is the largest known Roman villa in Portugal, an unusually vertical estate whose vaulted rear gallery still stands two stories high....

Roman Temple of Diana, Mérida

Mérida, Badajoz, Spain

Standing at the heart of Mérida's ancient forum, this 1st-century temple takes its popular name from a 17th-century historian's mistaken comparison to a Greek temple of...

Sagalassos

Burdur, Turkey

Set at 1,450–1,700 metres in the Taurus Mountains, Sagalassos rose from a Hittite-era predecessor to become Rome's most lavishly honoured city in Pisidia....

Samuha

Sivas, Turkey

Samuha was called the 'religious foyer of the Hittite Empire' — the supreme cult center of Šauška, goddess of love and war. A future Hittite king served as her priest here....

Sanctuary of Aphrodite

Part of Archaeological Site of Palaepaphos

Kouklia, Paphos, Cyprus

For sixteen centuries, from the 12th century BCE to the 4th century CE, the Sanctuary of Aphrodite at Palaepaphos was the most important center of Aphrodite worship in the...

Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates

Episkopi, Episkopi, Limassol District, Cyprus

Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates is a documented archaeological site in Episkopi, Limassol District, Cyprus, connected with Ancient Greek and Roman religion....

Sanctuary of Apollo Maleatas

Epidauros, Mount Kynortion, Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece

Sanctuary of Apollo Maleatas is a source-documented archaeological sanctuary in Mount Kynortion, Argolis, Peloponnese, associated with Apollo Maleatas....

Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron

Vravrona, East Attica, Greece

Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron is a source-documented archaeological sanctuary in East Attica, associated with Artemis Brauronia....

Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia

Sparta, Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece

Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia is a source-documented archaeological sanctuary in Laconia, Peloponnese, associated with Orthia, later Artemis Orthia....

Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidauros

Epidauros, Peloponnese, Greece

Epidauros was the principal sanctuary of Asklepios, Greek god of healing, and the mother-shrine from which all other Asklepieia drew their authority....

Santuario delle Divinità Ctonie

Part of Valle dei Templi

Agrigento, Agrigento, Italy

The Sanctuary of the Chthonic Deities occupies the western end of the Valle dei Templi, a monumental sacred area divided into three terraces of altars, enclosures, and...

Šapinuwa

Çorum, Turkey

Šapinuwa was a royal Hittite city that may have briefly displaced the capital Hattusa itself, and its archive of 3,000-plus tablets—written in Hittite, Hurrian, Akkadian,...

Sarissa

Sivas, Turkey

Sarissa was a royal cult city of the Hittite Empire, dedicated to the supreme Weather God....

Segóbriga Archaeological Park

Saelices, Cuenca, Spain

Segóbriga crowns a mesa in the Spanish Meseta, its theatre, amphitheatre, forum, and Visigothic basilica still largely standing after two millennia of near-continuous...

Selge

Antalya, Turkey

Selge occupied a natural fortress at 1,250 metres in the Taurus, overlooking the gorges of what is now Köprülü Canyon National Park....

Selinunte Archeological Park

Castelvetrano, Trapani, Italy

Selinunte was the westernmost Greek colony in Sicily, a frontier city that built eight massive temples between 590 and 420 BC before Carthage destroyed it in 409 BC....

Serabit el-Khadim

South Sinai, Egypt

High on a sandstone plateau in the Sinai desert stands the only temple to Hathor ever built outside mainland Egypt....

Serapeum of Saqqara

Abu Sir, Giza, Egypt

Descend into the earth at Saqqara and enter the burial halls of the Apis bulls—living gods who walked the streets of Memphis as incarnations of Ptah the creator....

Side

Antalya, Turkey

Side was one of the great port cities of ancient Pamphylia — a dense peninsula-city of temples, theatres, and harbor gates, unique in having its own indigenous language...

Sidyma

Muğla, Turkey

Sidyma is one of the most evocative unexcavated Lycian cities: approximately 100 tomb monuments — pillar tombs, house tombs, sarcophagi on podia — scattered through the...

Soğmatar

Şanlıurfa, Turkey

In the Tektek Mountains southeast of Şanlıurfa, Soğmatar preserves the physical remains of a Sabian sacred landscape — seven satellite shrines surrounding a central hill...

Source des Roches

Chamalières, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France

At the Source des Roches in Chamalières, archaeology reveals a sanctuary centered on a natural water basin.

Sources of the Seine

Source-Seine, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France

At Source-Seine in Burgundy, the river begins within a landscape shaped by both ancient devotion and later garden design.

Stratonikeia

Muğla, Turkey

Stratonikeia was the unique Carian city linked by sacred procession roads to two major divine sanctuaries: the Temple of Hecate at Lagina and the Temple of Zeus...

Sun Temple of Niuserre, Abu Girab

Abu Sir, Giza, Egypt

The Sun Temple of Niuserre at Abu Ghurob is one of only two surviving Fifth Dynasty sun temples, out of at least six that once existed....

Sura

Antalya, Turkey

On a marshy inlet near ancient Myra, the oracle of Sura operated for centuries without a philosopher or priestess in sight — only fish....

Tapikka

Tokat, Turkey

Tapikka was the Hittite Empire's northernmost garrison city, positioned on the frontier with the Kaska people....

Taşçı Reliefs

Kayseri, Turkey

Carved into cliff faces deep within a narrow gorge at the confluence of two rivers, the Taşçı Reliefs are among the most remote sacred monuments of the Hittite Empire....

Teatro di Segesta

Calatafimi-Segesta, Trapani, Italy

The Theatre of Segesta sits atop Monte Barbaro in northwestern Sicily, carved from the hillside above a cave that held a sacred spring over a thousand years before the...

Tell Tayinat

Hatay, Turkey

Tell Tayinat was the royal capital Kunulua of the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Patina — a city of carved lion-flanked temples whose tripartite sacred architecture mirrors, in...

Telmessos Rock Tombs

Muğla, Turkey

The Telmessos rock tombs are Lycian funerary architecture at its most public: carved directly into a limestone cliff above the harbor of modern Fethiye, visible from...

Tempio de Discuori

Part of Valle dei Templi

Agrigento, Agrigento, Italy

The Temple of Heracles is the oldest sacred structure in the Valle dei Templi, dating to approximately 510 BC....

Tempio di Apollo (C)

Selinunte, Trapani, Italy

The Temple of Heracles is the oldest sacred structure in the Valle dei Templi, dating to approximately 510 BC....

Tempio di Atena (F)

Selinunte, Trapani, Italy

The Temple of Heracles is the oldest sacred structure in the Valle dei Templi, dating to approximately 510 BC....

Tempio di Ercole

Part of Valle dei Templi

Agrigento, Agrigento, Italy

The Temple of Heracles is the oldest sacred structure in the Valle dei Templi, dating to approximately 510 BC....

Tempio di Giunone

Part of Valle dei Templi

Agrigento, Agrigento, Italy

The Temple of Juno stands at the highest point of the Valle dei Templi ridge, its 30 surviving columns receiving the first light of each Sicilian dawn....

Tempio di Hera (E)

Selinunte, Trapani, Italy

The Temple of Heracles is the oldest sacred structure in the Valle dei Templi, dating to approximately 510 BC....