Prehistoric

Old Scatness Broch and Iron Age Village

Virkie, Scotland, United Kingdom

In 1975, construction workers building a road to Sumburgh Airport cut through what appeared to be a natural grassy mound at the southern tip of Mainland Shetland....

Ousdale Broch

Helmsdale, Scotland, United Kingdom

In a sheltered valley where the Ousdale Burn cuts toward the sea, between the villages of Helmsdale and Berriedale on the Caithness-Sutherland border, a broch stands that...

Palaghju (Palaggiu) Alignment

Sartène, Corse-du-Sud, France

Deep in the Corsican maquis near Sartene, 258 megaliths rise in seven groups, making Palaghju the largest alignment of standing stones in the entire Mediterranean....

Parque Nacional Serra da Capivara

São Raimundo Nonato, Piauí, Brazil

Deep in the semi-arid caatinga of northeastern Brazil, over 1,200 rock shelters hold more than 30,000 paintings spanning millennia....

Paytasar Lisitsyan Petroglyph Group

Geghard highlands, Kotayk, Armenia

Paytasar Lisitsyan Petroglyph Group is a documented petroglyph site in Geghard highlands, Kotayk, Armenia, connected with Prehistoric ritual landscape....

Pena Molexa

Narón, A Coruña, Spain

On a hillside above the parish of O Val in Naron, Galicia, a multi-ton granite boulder shaped like a lunar disc rests between boat-shaped supporting stones....

Penedo de Lexim

Mafra, Lisbon, Portugal

Above the Ribeira de Cheleiros, a volcanic rock outcrop formed some seventy-five million years ago rises abruptly from the countryside near Mafra....

Penrhos Feiliw standing stones

Holyhead, Wales, United Kingdom

On Holy Island, at the western edge of Anglesey, two standing stones rise in near-identical form....

Pentre Ifan Dolmen

Nevern, Wales, United Kingdom

On a hillside in west Wales, a sixteen-ton capstone floats on three slender uprights....

Petroglyphs, Cholpon Ata

Çolpon-Ata, Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan

On the northern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul, hundreds of glacial boulders carry carvings of deer, ibex, horses, hunters and solar discs left by Bronze Age herders and Saka...

Piève statue-menhirs

Haute-Corse, France

In the village of Piève in northern Corsica, three Bronze Age granite figures stand before the parish church of San Quilicu....

Pla de Petracos Sanctuary

Castell de Castells, Alicante, Spain

Eight sheltered overhangs on a limestone cliff in the mountains of Alicante hold one of Europe's earliest known sanctuaries....

Poulnabrone dolmen

County Clare, Clare, Ireland

Poulnabrone dolmen stands in Republic of Ireland as a major prehistoric site. At Poulnabrone dolmen, Prehistoric ritual and funerary traditions provides the public sacred...

Praying Hands of Mary

Fortingall, Scotland, United Kingdom

Deep in Glen Lyon, Scotland's longest and most storied glen, two weathered stones rise from the hillside like hands pressed together in prayer....

Proleek Dolmen

Dundalk, Louth, Ireland

Proleek Dolmen is a nationally or regionally important prehistoric place in Republic of Ireland....

Quoyness Chambered Cairn

Sanday, Scotland, United Kingdom

On the Elsness peninsula of Sanday, one of Orkney's northern isles, a chambered cairn of exceptional preservation stands near the shore....

Rathcroghan

Tulsk, Roscommon, Ireland

Rathcroghan was the sacred heart of Connacht for over 5,500 years. This ancient royal site, spread across the Roscommon plains, contains more than 240 monuments including...

Rehaghiu (Rinaghju) Menhirs

Sartène, Corse-du-Sud, France

Beneath a grove of trees on Corsica's Cauria plateau, forty-six granite menhirs stand in two parallel rows, creating what feels like a processional path through Bronze Age...

Ri Cruin Cairn

Kilmartin, Scotland, United Kingdom

Ri Cruin Cairn stands at the southern end of Kilmartin Glen's linear cemetery, a two-kilometre alignment of Bronze Age burial cairns running through the floor of an Argyll...

Ring of Bookan

Stromness, Scotland, United Kingdom

On a windswept rise northwest of the Ring of Brodgar, a broad ditch and raised platform mark where Neolithic people placed a monument at the boundary between the everyday...

Ring of Brodgar

Stromness, Scotland, United Kingdom

On a windswept isthmus between two lochs in Orkney, thirty-six ancient stones stand in an almost perfect circle, remnants of sixty that once marked one of Britain's most...

Sacred pit of Garlo, Bulgaria

Krasava, Pernik, Bulgaria

Near the village of Garlo in western Bulgaria, thirteen stone steps descend into the earth to a round domed chamber built over three thousand years ago....

Sacred Well of Saint Christina

Paulle/Paulilatino, Oristano, Italy

Every 18.6 years, moonlight descends a perfectly carved staircase to touch the sacred spring at its base....

Sakhurak 6 Vishapakar

Zvartnots village pasture, Ararat, Armenia

Sakhurak 6 Vishapakar is a documented vishapakar in Zvartnots village pasture, Ararat, Armenia, connected with Prehistoric mortuary and ritual landscape....

Sammallahdenmäki

Rauma, Satakunta, Finland

Sammallahdenmäki is a cluster of 36 granite burial cairns raised on a forested ridge in Lappi, Rauma, between roughly 1500 and 500 BCE....

Sanctuary of Panóias

Vila Real, Vila Real, Portugal

In the late 2nd to early 3rd century CE, the Roman senator Gaius Calpurnius Rufinus inscribed the granite outcrops of Panóias with an unusually explicit sacred law: the...

Santimamiñe Cave

Kortezubi, Biscay, Spain

Inside a hillside cave near Bilbao, Magdalenian hunter-gatherers painted fifty animal figures roughly 14,000 years ago — bison, horses, ibex — in a chamber so deep it...

Santuario Nuragico di Santa Vittoria

Serri, South Sardinia, Italy

On a basalt plateau 650 metres above sea level in central Sardinia, the Santuario Nuragico di Santa Vittoria is the most important ceremonial complex of the Nuragic...

Saraakallio Rock Paintings

Laukaa, Central Finland, Finland

Saraakallio is Fennoscandia's largest known rock-painting site: a sheer cliff on Lake Saraavesi in Laukaa, Central Finland, carrying roughly 200 red ochre figures painted...

Sayburç

Şanlıurfa, Turkey

Sayburç holds the oldest known narrative artwork in human history: a 3.7-metre stone bench relief depicting a man holding his phallus, flanked by leopards, followed by a...

Sefertepe

Şanlıurfa, Turkey

Sefertepe is the easternmost site of Turkey's Taş Tepeler Neolithic network, and among the most revelatory for understanding how ancient communities managed the transition...

Siega Verde Archaeological Site

Castillejo de Martín Viejo, Salamanca, Spain

Along a quiet bend of the Águeda river, hunter-gatherers scratched horses, aurochs, and deer into bare schist tens of thousands of years ago....

Silbury Hill

West Kennet, England, United Kingdom

Silbury Hill belongs among the significant prehistoric places of England. The sacred frame at Silbury Hill comes from Prehistoric ritual and funerary traditions....

Sito Archeologico Lu Brandali - Mostra di Archeologia Nuragica

Santa Teresa Gallura, Sassari, Italy

Lu Brandali preserves a nuragic village, tower, and Giants' Tomb on a granite promontory in northeastern Sardinia....

Skara Brae Prehistoric Village

Sandwick, Scotland, United Kingdom

On the western shore of Orkney's Mainland, the Bay of Skaill opens to the Atlantic....

Skegriedösen

Kurland, Skåne, Sweden

Skegriedosen stands in a Skane meadow surrounded by seventeen standing stones, a peaked capstone sheltering a chamber once designed for a single seated burial....

Skorba Prehistoric Site

Mġarr, Malta

Skorba is the most informative site in Malta for understanding how Neolithic people actually lived....

St Lythans burial chamber

Wenvoe, Wales, United Kingdom

St Lythans burial chamber is a nationally or regionally important prehistoric place in Wales....

Standing Stone of Hollandstoun

North Ronaldsay, Scotland, United Kingdom

On North Ronaldsay, the most northerly of Orkney's inhabited islands, a standing stone known as the Stan Stane rises approximately four metres from the ground....

Standing Stones of Stenness

Stenness, Scotland, United Kingdom

On the narrow isthmus between the salt Loch of Stenness and the freshwater Loch of Harray, four surviving megaliths stand where perhaps twelve once formed an ellipse....

Stantari Menhirs

Sartène, Corse-du-Sud, France

On the wild Cauria plateau of southern Corsica, thirty ancient megaliths stand in alignment, seven of them bearing carved human faces, shoulders, and weapons....

Stanton Drew stone ring

Stanton Drew, England, United Kingdom

In a field outside a small Somerset village stands Britain's second largest stone circle. Few visitors know it exists....

Statue-menhir of Tavera

Corse-du-Sud, France

The Tavera statue-menhir is a 2.42-metre anthropomorphic standing stone carved from fine-grained granite by Bronze Age inhabitants of the Gravone valley — considered one...

Stenshuvud's National Park

Simrishamns kommun, Skåne, Sweden

Stenshuvud rises ninety-seven meters from the flat Skane coastline, a rocky promontory visible from great distances over land and sea....

Stone 'O Quoybune

Birsay, Scotland, United Kingdom

The Stone 'O Quoybune rises three and a half metres from a field beside the Loch of Boardhouse in the parish of Birsay, on Mainland Orkney....

Stone Of Destiny

Part of Hill of Tara

Navan, Meath, Ireland

The Lia Fail stands on the Hill of Tara, a granite pillar that legend says once roared to recognize the rightful High King of Ireland....

Stonehenge

West Amesbury, England, United Kingdom

Stonehenge rises from Salisbury Plain as the most recognized prehistoric monument on Earth....

Styrdalen Valla Dolmen

Kållekärr, Västra Götaland, Sweden

The Valla Dos rises from a low hill on the island of Tjorn like a mushroom carved from granite, its capstone balanced on supporting stones for five millennia....