50 Must-see ancient sites & ruins of lost civilisations

The two temples of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel in Aswan are among the most impressive of all the world’s surviving ancient monuments. It remains a testament to the power of the Egyptian empire at its height under Ramesses II, aka ‘Ramesses the Great’.

Cut into the rock above the Nile floodplain more than 3,000 years ago, fronted by four colossal statues of the pharaoh. His consort Nefertari and their children can be seen in smaller figures by his feet. Queen Nefertari was the first of Ramesses’ ‘Great Royal Wives’.

This iconic citadel and world-famous Athens city landmark contains half-a-dozen buildings, mostly built from 500 BC to 450 BC on the orders of the powerful statesman Pericles, during the so-called ‘Golden age of Athens’.

The star attraction is, of course, the Parthenon, a 2,500-year-old temple made from a marble jigsaw made of 70,000 pieces. It’s the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, and dazzles with its perfect symmetry.

The former capital of the Khmer people, Angkor is a pilgrimage site for Buddhists and the archetypal ‘lost city’ for the rest of us.

Built between the 9th-13th centuries deep in the Cambodian jungle, the site represents Khmer architecture at its finest and includes Angkor Wat, the largest religious building ever constructed.

Thailand’s ancient capital, just outside of Bangkok and now home to ruined palaces and crumbling Buddha statues, was once one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities, a vast span of grand palaces and gilded temples.

That abruptly ended when the Burmese ransacked the city in 1767 and reduced its splendours to rubble.

This remarkable temple complex is home to some of the best-preserved Roman ruins in the world.

Situated on a hill overlooking the surrounding valley, the site’s biggest draw are the six remaining columns of the famous Temple of Jupiter, but it also boasts the much better-preserved Temple of Bacchus.

The mostly wooden cities of the Etruscans have all but vanished, but they also built astonishing cities of the dead that replicated their long-lost abodes.

Cerveteri, just outside of Rome, is one of the best – a necropolis with more than 400 tombs from the 9th-2nd centuries BC. Visits are now enhanced with 3D technology.

A huge, impressive and little-visited 2,000-year-old Mayan city on the Mayan Riviera that was once a rival to Tikal.

The giant pyramids of this ruined city emerge evocatively from a wildlife-filled rainforest, the second-largest rainforest in the Western Hemisphere.

The largest and best-preserved temple complex in Sri Lanka, Dambulla towers above the surrounding plains.

It houses eighty individual caves, with five home to over 150 Buddha statues – a wealth of cultural and religious history. The monastery dates back to the 2nd century BC, and still functions as such today.

Discovered in December 1994, Chauvet is arguably the most spectacular paleolithic cave of them all, decorated with extraordinary vivid scenes of lions, horses, aurochs, bison, and woolly rhinoceroses that seem to race across the contoured walls.

Painted 36,000 years ago, the art was preserved when the entrance collapsed 20 millennia ago.

The most iconic of Mexico’s mystical pre-Hispanic Mayan ruins, whose oldest structures date back to the 5th century.

This famous site on the Mayan Riviera is littered with stunning, monumental buildings – the perfectly proportioned Castillo pyramid, decorated with plumed serpents, the collonaded Temple of a Thousand Warriors, vast ball courts and exquisitely carved palaces.

This fascinating religious site is home to eleven extraordinary monolithic churches, dug downwards out of the volcanic tuff. They were built on the orders of King Gebre Mesqel Lalibela (who gave the site its name) following a celestial vision.

The stand-out is the beautifully-preserved Church of St. George, a popular pilgrimage site.

This sprawling citadel is one of the largest and oldest castles in the world – records of its existence in some form date back to 3,000 BC. Over the centuries, it’s been home to multiple civilisations, including the Greeks, Byzantines, Ottomans and Romans, and has survived multiple invasions and wars.

Highlights today include the imposing stone entrance bridge, the Ayyubid Palace and the ancient hammam.

Rome’s heritage centrepiece, the Colosseum, was the largest ever amphitheatre built during the Roman Empire – and it still manages to pull a hefty crowd.

Built to host gladiatorial contests and handle an unruly crowd of 50,000 spectators, it is considered one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and engineering.

This extraordinary, 85m deep, multi-level underground Cappadocian city, carved into the soft bedrock, is the largest underground city in Turkey.

A visit entails a descent via long lamp-lit tunnels, through chambers and store rooms, into the heart of an apparently endless warren that once sheltered over 20,000 people.

Facing Split’s seafront promenade, this vast 3rd-century AD palace was Roman emperor Diocletian’s retirement home. It now forms the core of Split’s stunning, UNESCO-listed historic centre.

In later centuries, medieval, Gothic, Renaissance and baroque buildings were erected within the citadel’s sturdy white-marble walls.

The Roman capital of Asia Minor and one of the largest cities in the ancient world, Ephesus was home to the famous Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Today, the Ephesus site is a stunning evocation of Roman-era life in the Empire’s east and a must-see on Turkey’s Turquoise Coast.

The Giza Plateau, wedged between the city’s borders and the Western Desert, is a remarkable complex of gargantuan stone pyramids, several cemeteries, and a giant statue of a mythological sphinx – all dating back to 2,500 BC.

The Great Pyramid of Giza, tomb of the Pharaoh Khufu, is the oldest and largest of the pyramids; standing 147m in height, it was the world’s tallest man-made structure for nearly four millennia.

Often cited as the greatest ever man-made construction, built during the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD), the Great Wall snakes along China’s 5,000-mile-long northern boundary 75km north of Beijing.

Up to 8m tall and 9m wide, this ancient defensive wall traverses the stupendous mountain scenery of northern China, with numerous sections that can be hiked.

The largest of the 34 cave temples in the extraordinary Ellora Caves complex, this Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva was carved out of a rock face in the 8th century by the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I.

Astonishingly, it’s a megalith, carved up to 33m downwards from the top down.

The largest temple complex in the world, Karnak was the most important place of worship for ancient Egyptians, with 80,000 people working here during the reign of Ramses II.

The Temple of Amun is the most impressive of all, spread across 250,000sq m, with a magnificent hall of 134 columns.

Peru‘s top sight, the Incas’ magnificent 15th-century mountaintop citadel sprawls across ten hectares of Peruvian cloud forest. Its elaborate architecture comprises ceremonial centres – including a sun temple – as well as residential areas and agricultural terraces.

At the north end is Wayna Picchu, the cone-shaped mountain that rises imperiously above the site.

Set on a plateau at the top of imposing cliffs in the Judaean Desert, the ancient fortress of Masad was built by the Hasmoneans in 1 BC before being taken over by the Romans in 75 BC.

The original complex included an armoury, soldiers’ barracks and storehouses – Herod the Great added two palaces around 30 BC.

These strange-looking stone monoliths were carved by the native Rapu Nui people. Called moai, meaning ‘statue’, they’re inspired by the faces of deified ancestors.

The tallest, Paro, is 10m and weighs a staggering 82 tonnes – emphasising the remarkable feat to produce and transport them.

Jordan’s premier sight is a vast and spectacular 4th-century BC Nabataean city, carved into the pink-hued cliffs of the surrounding mountains and gorges.

The sight remained a secret to everyone except the Nabataeans until it was ‘discovered’ in 1812 by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt.

The eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 smothered the thriving Roman town of Pompeii in choking volcanic ash.

Today, you can stroll Pompeii’s streets and see the town as it was that day in almost perfect detail – right down to ruts in the roads caused by chariot wheels.

Built in the 9th century to serve as the royal temple of the Kingdom of Mataram, this vast compound of 240 temples is second in size only to Angkor Wat in South-East Asia.

Mysteriously abandoned in the 10th century, and damaged by a 16th-century earthquake, it remains an evocative showcase of Hindu architecture, with classically tall, pointed temple designs.

This ruined Inca fortress and ceremonial centre, on the northern outskirts of the Peruvian city of Cusco, is an imposing sight – a series of tri-level ramparts hundreds of metres long and overlooking a vast field.

The masonry boggles the mind: boulders weighing hundreds of tons cut into strange geometric shapes – transported without the use of the wheel – are jigsaw-pieced together without cement or metal tools.

This ancient rock fortress and former royal palace was built in AD 477 by King Kashyapa. It was abandoned after his death in AD 495 and used as a Buddhist monastery until the 14th century.

Halfway up is the King’s oversized lion gateway – hence its name ‘Lion Rock’.

India’s largest functioning Hindu temple – one of the largest religious complexes in the world – contains over 80 shrines, 20 towers, 35 pavilions and 7 enclosures on a vast 155-acre site.

One of Hindu’s holiest sites, it’s recognised as being first and foremost among the 108 Divya Desams dedicated to Bhagwan Vishnu.

At the base of Mount Sinai, set amid a dramatic and harsh desert landscape, this remarkable Greek Orthodox monastery was built by order of Emperor Justinian I (AD 527-565) to protect the biblical ‘Burning Bush’, where Moses received his instructions to lead the Israelites out of Egypt in Canaan.

The monastery is one of the oldest working Christian monasteries in the world, and is a holy pilgrimage site.

There is nowhere else in the UK that matches Stonehenge for history, atmosphere and mysticism.

An ancient burial site dating back to between 2,000-3,000 BC, the iconic stone circle is one of the most famous prehistoric monuments in the world, offering a unique glimpse at England’s pre-history.

One of the most beautiful Greco-Roman temples, with the most romantic setting of all, this 4th century BC was dedicated to the goddess and her husband, Osiris.

It became one of Egypt’s most sacred sites during Roman times, and attracted pilgrims from along the Nile and around the Mediterranean for thousands of years.

Bagan’s mist-shrouded landscape, peppered with seemingly random pagodas and temples, was once home to the capital of the Bagan Kingdom.

At its height, over 10,000 intricate temples, pagodas and monasteries graced its skyline; only around 2,200 that have withstood the periodic earthquakes remain. Experience it from a hot air balloon at sunrise. Magical.

This ancient Mesoamerican city, just north of Mexico City, was once the largest in the Americas, home to over 125,000 people. Highlights are its stand-out stone two pyramids, the ‘Pyramid of the Sun’ and the ‘Pyramid of the Moon’, connected by the ‘Avenue of the Dead’.

It was established in around 100 BC and thrived until its mysterious sacking and burning in AD 550.

An extraordinary ancient army of life-sized terracotta warriors, built to guard the mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shihuang in the 3rd century BC, is one of China’s most awe-inspiring sights.

So far, more than 6,000 warriors have been found – each unique – with an estimated 2,000 more yet to be excavated.

One of the largest and most majestic ancient Mayan cities, Tikal’s awe-inspiring ruins soar through the Guatemalan jungle canopy. More than 3,000 structures reveal the extent of a city that once housed 100,000 Maya.

Although now a city of the dead, the surrounding rainforest thrums with wildlife including howler monkeys and toucans.

This unique ancient site is home to the evocative Roman-era ruins of Hierapolis, an arresting UNESCO World Heritage Site dating back to AD 80.

At its height, thousands travelled from across the Roman Empire to bathe in the medicinal hot springs and the town grew to a population of 100,000. The town was eventually destroyed, first by marauding Persian armies, then later by a devastating earthquake.

Today, it is notable for its fine theatre, impressive necropolis, museum and martyrium of the apostle St Philip.

Two hours’ drive from Bordeaux, these astonishing caves, painted around 17,000 BC, are known as the ‘Sistine Chapel’ of Palaeolithic art.

The breathtakingly sophisticated polychrome paintings of animals that remain have a keen eye for perspective and movement

Sadly, the cave had to be closed in 1963 because of the damage caused by carbon dioxide in visitors’ breath. But in 1983, after 11 years of work, a perfect replica of the two main sections of the cave, known as Lascaux II, opened 200m away.

Located where the River Tiber meets the sea, Ostia Antica was the harbour city of ancient Rome, and is one of Italy’s best-preserved archaeological sites. As a port, it was naturally cosmopolitan: Persian, Phrygian and Egyptian gods were all worshipped in its shrines.

Beautiful mosaic pavements (notably in the Forum of the Corporations), warehouses, apartment buildings (insulae), merchant’s houses, taverns, baths and a theatre, recall Ostia’s old prosperity on silent streets under the parasol pines.

A broad alluvial plain in the southern desert contains one of Peru’s most enigmatic sights: dozens of 2,000-year-old glyphs carved into the earth, on a scale so gargantuan that they can only be seen from the air. These land drawings of a monkey, spider and other figures have drawn legions of archaeologists, conspiracy theorists and curious travellers since they were first discovered in the 1920s.

Explanations vary; they may have been used as a giant astronomical calendar, a ritualised walking meditation or to communicate with the gods.

The remarkably well-preserved remains of the Greco-Roman city of Gerasa – today known as Jerash – lie 48km north of Amman.

Jerash was a Greek city in the third century BC and became a wealthy city under Roman rule. After falling into decline, the city was eventually buried by sands until excavation and restoration during the past 70 years unearthed the remains of some magnificently preserved buildings. It evokes powerful ghosts of Rome.

Considered the oldest city in Europe, this royal palace in Crete was a Bronze Age centre of commerce and culture. The centre of Minoan civilisation, it was also home to the legendary Minotaur.

Rivalled only in their magnificence by the great mosques, the Ottoman Sultan’s also lavished on magnificent palaces. First up, in 1453, was the opulent Topkapi Palace, built by Mehmet the Conqueror – which set the style and remained the seat of power for centuries.

The result was a legacy of 11 extravagant palaces, reaching a dizzying level of crystal chandelier splendour in the Dolmabahce Palace.

Founded in the 1520s by Babur, a warrior chieftain from present-day Uzbekistan, India’s Mughal Empire dominated most of north, central and even a swathe of south India for two centuries. Its capital shifted between Delhi, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri and Lahore (Pakistan), and it is these destinations which today boast an array of spectacular Mughal monuments.

Greatest of all is the mesmerising Taj Mahal, built by the great Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan to entomb his wife, Mumtaz.