50 Must-see ancient sites & ruins of lost civilisations

The two temples of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel 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 flood plain 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’.

The temple remains an awe-inspiring sight, despite having been relocated in the 1960s above the newly created Lake Nasser. It’s angled so that each 21 February and 21 October, the sun illuminated the gods in the innermost sanctuary. This happens a day later since its relocation, following construction of the Aswan Dam.

You can’t visit Athens without visiting the Acropolis. It is the city’s iconic citadel and world-famous landmark that won’t fail to amaze even the most jaded traveller.  

‘Acropolis’ translates broadly from the Greek words ‘highest point’ or ‘extremity’. The site 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’. Pericles wanted to beautify, glorify and protect the city. 

The Pathenon 

A marble jigsaw made of 70,000 pieces, this 2,500-year-old temple dating back to 438 BC was dedicated to the goddess Athena. It dazzles with perfect symmetry and awe-inspires with its ancient grandeur, even when it’s crawling with tourists. It’s the most important surviving building of Classical Greece and a symbol of the nation. 

The Erechtheion 

On the north side of the complex, this Temple of was also dedicated to the goddess Athena, and was built to house the statue of Athena Polias. More famously today, it’s home to the ‘Porch of the Maidens’, featuring six sculpted female figures. 

The stupendous temple city of Angkor Wat is just one of many ancient Khmer ruins at the UNESCO World Heritage listed Archaeological Park, yet it’s the best known, most captivating, and the one most Siem Reap visitors, young and old, come to see.

Whether you tour independently or with a guide, by remork (tuk-tuk) or bicycle, exploring Angkor Wat can be an Indiana Jones-style adventure through the jungle that will leave you sweaty and exhausted, but satisfied.

Before Bangkok – or Krung Thep – became Thailand’s (then Siam) capital in 1782, Ayutthaya was the Kingdom’s centre of power. As one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities of that time, it drew in merchants from all corners of the globe and grew into a vast empire of grand palaces and gilded temples. That abruptly ended when the Burmese ransacked the city in 1767 and reduced its splendours to rubble.

Today, it stands as a ruined shell of its former past, littered with bricks, dilapidated shrines and crumbling Buddha statues consumed by nature. But wander around these ruins, and you’ll only need a pinch of imagination to envision just how splendid this city once was.

This exceptional Roman temple complex is one of the best-preserved examples of Roman architecture in the world.

Situated on a hill overlooking the surrounding valley, the enormous site includes the remains of two exceptional Roman temples – the Temple of Bacchus and the Temple of Jupiter, the latter distinguished by its 6 remaining columns. Both date from the mid-1st century – the height of the Roman Empire.

The site was known as ‘Heliopolis’ (meaning Sun City in Greek) during Roman times, though it had been a site of worship since 8,000 BC. The current name derives from the Phoenician sky god, Baal; the Phoenicians (1500 BC – 300 BC) built the first significant temple here.

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 has one of the best: Banditaccia, a World Heritage necropolis with more than 400 tombs from the 9th-2nd centuries BC.

Recently some of the tombs have been virtually ‘reconstructed’ with their original art, Greek vases and other grave goods (now in museums) using 3D technology.

Calakmul is unforgettable. The giant pyramids of this 2000-year-old ruined city jut out over the largest stretch of rainforest in the Americas north of the Amazon, the Peten.

Calakmul was one of the largest of the Maya cities, built in around 100 BC and occupied for 1,000 years until it was abandoned to the forest. Much of it is protected as a biosphere reserve and the wildlife is exuberant – macaws and toucans flit through the canopy, jaguars hunt in the shadows.

Only a handful of visitors ever make it to this impressive Mayan city, lost in a vast, pristine rainforest. That’s a shame but a boon too – it’s remained a magical experience. The sense of being an explorer, isolated in pristine nature is exhilarating.

The largest and best-preserved temple complex in Sri Lanka, Dambulla towers above the surrounding plains, housing eighty individual caves, with five home to over 150 Buddha statues. It dates back to the 1st century BC, the still functional monastery to the 2nd century BC – a wealth of cultural and religious history.

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 – 19,000 years before Lascaux–the art was preserved when the entrance collapsed 20 millennia ago. Because of its fragile state, it was known from the get-go that it would be impossible to open the cave for tours, and the world’s largest replica opened nearby in 2015. The visit includes the Aurignacian Gallery, with a film on how these very early artists worked.

The UNESCO world heritage-listed Maya city of Chichen Itza is one of Mexico’s most iconic and spectacular attractions – a global must-see worthy of any bucket list.

The site is littered with stunning, monumental buildings – the towering and perfectly proportioned Castillo pyramid, decorated with plumed serpents, the collonaded Temple of a Thousand Warriors, vast ball courts and exquisitely carved palaces. These formed the ceremonial heart of a far larger city – built between AD 750 and 1200 – whose ruins extend into the wild forest surrounds.

Set aside Mel Gibson’s dramatised and inaccurate portrayal of these peaceful people in Apocalypto – and learn how their rich, sustainable culture lived in harmony with – and revered – the natural world.

Understanding a little about the pre-Columbian Maya really brings these sites to life. You could read Michael Coe’s The Maya, and/or Joyce Kelly’s An Archaeological Guide to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula before you go.

This amazing monolithic church, dug downwards out of the volcanic tuff, is the stand-out of eleven such medieval churches at this fascinating religious site. They were built on the order of King Gebre Mesqel Lalibela (who gave the site its name) in the late 12th century following a celestial vision. It remains a popular pilgrimage site – and King Lelibela is now recognised by the local Christians as a saint.

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, including the recent battle of Aleppo (2012-2016).

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

Built by Emperor Vespasian beginning in AD 72 and known as the Flavian Amphitheatre in ancient times, the thrilling Colosseum still manages to pull a hefty crowd.

Inaugurated by the Emperor’s son, Titus, in AD 80, it could hold an unruly crowd of more than 50,000 spectators. With a circumference of 545m, it’s considered one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and engineering.

The remarkably well-preserved walls, seating stands and underground tunnels are an evocative reminder of gory gladiatorial history.

Lovers of the film Gladiator will relish a guided tour of the monumental arena, where gladiatorial contests and traditional games were held.

This extraordinary, 85m deep, multi-level underground 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 palace – now integrated into the historic centre – was Roman emperor Diocletian’s retirement home. The emperor’s apartments overlooked the sea, while servants and soldiers occupied the rest of the complex, which centres on the Cathedral and Peristil, where Diocletian made public appearances.

Later on, medieval, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque buildings were erected within the white marble walls, and it became a city. Today, it’s a world-famous UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Split’s must-see attraction.

With its cobbled streets, spectacular surviving villa interiors and painstakingly restored facades, Turkey’s best-known ancient site stunningly evokes Roman-era life in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. It’s rare to experience a city quite so rich in architectural detailing, not least inscriptions, statuary and restored facades.

Wandering Ephesus’ main street, past a wealth of buildings including bathhouses, temples and the exceptional Library of Celsus, is an unmissable experience for anybody with the least fascination for the past.

The densely-crowded Egyptian city of Giza – on the West Bank of the Nile just outside of Cairo – welcomes millions of tourists every year to visit one of the world’s greatest archaeological sites.

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 monumental Great Wall of China is a defense work stretching from ocean to desert across the vast expanse of China’s northern regions. In the strategic uplands around Beijing, the Wall was built from bricks and stone, with crenelated battlements and watchtowers. Elsewhere it was more simply fashioned from tamped earth.

The Great Wall is actually a series of walls built during different eras of Chinese history, but the first unifying wall was constructed by China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, from around 220 BC. Much of the wall that remains standing today was reconstructed using stronger materials during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Later sections of the Great Wall – including Badaling, the first section to be opened to tourists – stand on average 8m tall and just under 6m wide, designed to allow five horses to ride abreast or ten soldiers to walk shoulder to shoulder.

The nearest stretches to Beijing have been restored and are now among the world’s most visited tourist spots. Unrestored sections, sometimes called the ‘wild wall’, remain in a precarious state of ruin, with an estimated thirty percent already lost to the vagaries of weather, earthquakes and human activity. Around Beijing, the undulating mountain landscapes are as inspiring as the defensive ramparts themselves.

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.

Karnak, or ancient Thebes, was Egypt’s foremost religious complex originally built in 2055 BC. Over the course of 1,500 years the site was continuously expanded by pharaohs, in tribute to the Theban gods; more than 80,000 workers toiled here during the reign of Ramesses II.

The most impressive sight in Karnak is the superbly preserved, 250,000sq m Temple of Amun, which boasts a magnificent hypostyle hall with 134 massive columns.

You need to visit Karnak twice – once in daylight, and once at night for the Sound & Light Show, and to see the temple lit up.

Even if you’ve seen the view in a thousand pictures, you will be blown away: clouds drifting up the lush valley, the newly-risen sun burning them away and drawing the veil from the face of Huayna Picchu mountain and the cascade of ruin-strewn terraces below.

Welcome to one of South America’s most iconic sights: the remarkable Inca citadel that lay undisturbed for centuries, only to come to international attention after a National Geographic expedition in 1911.

This Inca City was lost for centuries in the cloud forest, until it was romantically ‘re-discovered’ by explorer Hiram Bingham (with the help of locals who always knew it was there). Straddling a high mountain ridge, it was famously bult as the Inca’s secret final refuge – but you can’t help thinking they chose the location for the view.

It was abandoned around the time of the Spanish Conquest, and remains relatively intact because it was never discovered by the Conquistadors.

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.

This magnificent UNESCO World Heritage-listed archaeological site is Jordan’s main attraction. Dating from the 4th century BC, Petra was a Nabataean city of spectacular edifices carved into the cliff faces of the surrounding mountains and gorges.

While Petra’s strategic location was exploited by the Romans and Crusaders, the city was subsequently abandoned and remained a secret to everyone except the Nabataeans until it was ‘rediscovered’ in 1812 by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt.

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 famously smothered the thriving Roman town of Pompeii with molten lava and choking volcanic ash.

Today, you can stroll along Pompeii’s streets and see the town as it was that day in extraordinarily vivid detail – right down to ruts in the roads caused by chariot wheels. Peer into perfectly preserved homes and shops, and wander round the Forum and Roman Baths.

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 to the sun perches over Cusco – with magnificent views of the city from its massive walls. 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.

The ruins represent just a fifth of its original mass. Even so, it’s an imposing sight: a series of tri-level ramparts hundreds of metres long and overlooking a vast field. The scale of some boulders is truly monumental, a testament to the ingenuity of Inca masonry.

This ancient rock fortress and former royal palace was built in 477 AD by King Kashyapa. It was abandoned after his death in 495 AD 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, is the Greek Orthodox monastery of St. Catherine. A UNESCO World Heritage site, this remarkable monastery was built by order of Emperor Justinian I (527-565) to protect the biblical ‘Burning Bush’, where Moses received his instructions to lead the Israelites out of Egypt in Canaan. The living bush in the grounds – now surrounded by a protective fence – is apparently the original.

The monastery is one of the oldest working Christian monasteries in the world, and it is still used by a religious community. It remains a holy pilgrimage site.

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

An ancient burial site dating back to at least 2,500 BC, the iconic stone circle is one of the most famous prehistoric monuments in the world. Surrounded by burial mounds, and Bronze Age and Neolithic monuments, Stonehenge offers a unique glimpse of England’s pre-history.

The state-of-the-art visitor centre has over 250 archaeological exhibits discovered around the site, alongside a 360-degree virtual experience of standing among the stones. Next to the centre, a clutch of re-created Neolithic houses gives an insight into how people lived 4,500 years ago.

While much has been discovered about the site, Stonehenge remains shrouded in mystery to this day. No one is sure for certain what purpose the structure once served. Was it a temple for sun worship, a healing centre, or simply an elaborate burial site?

Most mysterious of all is how our Neolithic ancestors – more than four millennia ago and using only primitive tools – managed to manoeuvre the huge stones, the heaviest of which weighs around 50 tons. It was once thought the stones had been transported from the Preseli Hills in Wales (more than 150 miles away), but a recent theory suggests the stones may have come from much closer, deposited near the site by the Irish Sea Glacier during the last Ice Age.

For thousands of years this temple has attracted pilgrims from along the Nile and around the Mediterranean. Begun by the Ptolemies in the 4th century BC, dedicated to the goddess and her husband, Osiris, it became one of the country’s most sacred sites during Roman times.

The temple was relocated to a new island following the building of the Aswan Dam, but it remains one of the most beautiful Graeco-Roman temples in the world, with the most romantic setting of all.

Look out for crosses and an altar in the inner courts of the temple: after the cult of Isis was suppressed, the temple was converted into a Christian church.

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 city, just north of Mexico City, was once the largest in the Americas, home to over 125,000 people at its peak. It flourished between the 1st and 6th centuries CE, when it became a major cultural and economic centre, influencing various cultures across Mesoamerica.

Despite its status today as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, much about the city’s origins, its inhabitants, and the reasons for its decline remains a mystery. It was seemingly sacked and burned by its own population in AD 550.

All that mystery, along with impressive architecture, makes Teotihuacan a fascinating archaeological and cultural site. The highlights are the two stand-out pyramids, the ‘Pyramid of the Sun’ and the ‘Pyramid of the Moon’, connected by the ‘Avenue of the Dead’ – a central thoroughfare lined with important structures.

One of China’s most awe-inspiring archaeological sites and tourism attractions, the incredibly life-like terracotta warriors (and military horses) were commissioned in the 3rd century BC by Emperor Qin Shihuang to guard his monumental underground mausoleum on the advent of his death.

First unearthed by accident near Xi’an in 1974, to date more than 6,000 life-size warriors have been found – each unique – with an estimated 2,000 more yet to be excavated. The thousands of life-sized warriors are set in infantry formation in three vast covered pits.

The Maya ruins of Tikal are the most majestic of the accessible jungle ruins in Guatemala. Towering temples soar through the jungle canopy; carved stelae depict Maya lords and record periods of war; vast plazas contain ball courts; and two museums reveal ceramics and jade jewels that journeyed with Maya lords to the underworld. More than 3,000 structures remain of a city that once housed 100,000 Maya.

Although a city of the dead, the forest is alive with the chatter of howler monkeys and screech of toucans.

This conglomeration of Mayan towns, linked by extensive paved walkways and centred on pyramid-lined plazas, was one of the most important Mayan trading centres in its heyday between AD 200 and AD 1400.

Set in lush forest near two pretty lakes, it receives far fewer visitors than Chichen Itza or Tulum and consequently feels more authentic and atmospheric. There are wonderful views from the temple tops, the largest of which is almost 130ft tall.

Look for toucans and spider monkeys in the forest canopy, wild coatimundis, agouti and rare peccaries on the forest paths.

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.

Known as the ‘Sistine Chapel’ of Palaeolithic art, the Lascaux Caves were painted around 17,000 BC. The breathtakingly sophisticated polychrome paintings of bison, horses, reindeer and aurochs demonstrate 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. A partial replica, Lascaux II, opened in 1983, and in 2016 a complete replica, Lascaux IV, opened as part of Montignac’s high-tech International Centre of Parietal Art.

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.

The designs were made by removing reddish stones from the desert terrain to reveal the grey ground beneath. The windless, near-lifeless landscape preserved the glyphs over the centuries.

They were probably created over more than a millennium by three different groups: the Paracas, the Nazca and the Huari; but no one knows why. 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. Evokes powerful ghosts of Rome.

Knossos is one of the most important archaeological sites in Greece, the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete, and is known as Europe’s oldest city, dating back to the Neolithic period.

It was the palace of King Minos, founder of the Minoan civilisation that flourished 4,000 years ago. This is also where Theseus slayed the mythical Minotaur, after navigating through the labyrinth with the help of Minos’ daughter, Ariadne.

The size of a small town, the palace itself resembles a labyrinth. With its stunning frescoes, mosaics, ceramic vessels, and painted columns, the site is remarkably well preserved (though some archaeologists object to Arthus Evans’ partial reconstructions of the site).

Known to the ancients as the ‘Place of Truth’, the 62 known tombs in the remarkable Valley of the Kings belong to some of the greatest of Egypt’s pharaohs, including the famous tomb of Tutankhamun.

Pharaohs began building and decorating their tombs as soon as they came to the throne, and they were stuffed with all of their belongings after their death to accompany them into the afterlife. The treasures are long gone, stolen by tomb raiders, but the hieroglyphic-decorated ceilings and walls are no less impressive.

Tutankhamun’s tomb is actually one of the smallest. Discovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922, it’s the only tomb found with its treasure intact (on display in the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo).

One of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time, Sutton Hoo is the burial site of an Anglo-Saxon king.

Discovered in the 1930s, the site dates back to the 6th century and holds the remains of a royal ‘ship burial’, complete with a spectacular hoard of armour, weapons and artifacts that were laid out alongside the monarch, thought to be King Raedwald.

The site is located on a beautiful 225-acre estate, and there are lovely walks around the grounds and an Edwardian house to explore. A new addition is a full-size sculpture of the ship that would once have held the discovered artifacts.

After conquering Constantinople, Mehmet the Conqueror converted the Hagia Sophia, the great Byzantine church, into a mosque. By the 1500s, the sultans were transforming Istanbul’s skyline with spectacular granite, marble and tile mosques inspired by the Hagia Sophia – many including complexes of hammams, schools, libraries and markets to fund them.

The legacy was almost 3,000 mosques (more than any other city on earth) of which the magnificent Ottoman imperial mosques – the 17th-century Blue Mosque and Sinan’s Suleymaniye Mosque – are the undoubted stars.

In 1453, Mehmet the Conqueror found the old Byzantine Great Palace uninhabitable, so he built a new one – the opulent Topkapi Palace – which set the style and remained the seat of power for centuries.

Other more flamboyant Sultans followed suit, no expense spared, in building their own palaces and monuments. The result was a legacy of 11 extravagant palaces, reaching a dizzying level of crystal chandelier splendour in the Dolmabahce Palace. Some of the palaces are summer houses and mansions, one (the Ciragan Palace) is now a 5-star hotel, but many are retained as museums.

One of the world’s most beautiful buildings is not merely an exquisite tomb but a monument to love. The Taj Mahal was completed after two decades’ labour in 1653 by the great Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan to entomb his wife, Mumtaz.

It stands at the head of formal gardens by the Yamuna River. The combination of milky-white marble (much of it inlaid with semi-precious stones, a technique known as pietra dura), a great bulbous dome and four slender minarets lend the mausoleum an astonishing almost ethereal beauty.

Admire it at your leisure – its well-kept gardens coax lingering, relaxed visits.