Didyma

In the ancient times, Didyma was famous as the place where a colossal Temple of Apollo stood, and the oracle revealed the future. In its heyday, Didyma was not a city, but a place of worship, connected with Miletus by the so-called Sacred Way. This road was used by the pilgrims who arrived at Did...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Didyma

Antik dünyanın en önemli kehanet merkezlerinden biri olan Didyma Apollon Tapınağı, Aydın’ın Didim ilçesinde yer almaktadır. İyon’ya kent devletlerini oluşturan Efes, Priene gibi önemli kentlerin kehanet merkezliğini yapan Apollon Tapınağı’nın asıl bağlı olduğu Miletos antik kentinin kutsal alanıy...

archaeologsTurkishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Oxyrhynchus

Ancient Greco-Roman town west of the Nile on the left bank of the Bahr Yusuf in Middle Egypt, best known for its papyri texts. Oxyrhynchus was a regional capital which was reasonably prosperous in the Roman period, and developed into a church and monastic center during the Coptic period. A large ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Oxyrhynchus

Rome, Ancient

Historic city of Italy located on the Tiber River in central Italy. The historical site of Rome on the Seven Hills - the Aventine, Caelian, Capitoline, Esquiline, Palatine, Quirinal, and Viminal - was occupied as early as c 900 BC, but continuous settlement by Indo-European peoples did not take p...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Rome, Ancient

Liulige

A town in Hui Xian, Hunan province, China, where many burials of the Shang and Eastern Chou periods have been excavated. The Shang burials, some containing bronze ritual vessels, belong to the Erligang Phase. Eastern Chou finds date from the 7th-2nd centuries BC, and include one of the largest of...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Liulige

Erbil

Ancient Assyrian city buried beneath a modern town in Iraq, on the summit of a large tell. Because there has been little excavation, it is known mainly from texts which say it had a temple dedicated to Ishtar and was a cult center second only to Assur. The earliest records referring to Arab'ilu b...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Erbil

Alaca Hüyük

[Alacahuyuk, Alacahüyük, Alacahöyük] A tell site in north central Turkey, near Boghaz Köy and 150 km east of Ankara, that was occupied in the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd millennia BC. Its Chalcolithic and Copper Age phases include a cemetery of 13 extremely rich tombs from c 2500 BC (Early Bronze Age II). ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Alaca Hüyük

Trondheim

Third largest city of Norway, founded in 997 by King Olaf I Tryggvason as the village of Kaupangr. He built a church and a royal residence, Kongsgård, there and it became the great medieval capital of Norway. Located along the ice-free Trondheim Fjord, it commanded land and sea routes to Russia a...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Trondheim

Philia

Type site for Chalcolithic III culture in northern Cyprus, mid-3rd millennium BC. It is characterized by red polished pottery.

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Philia

Hierakonpolis

An important Predynastic and Archaic settlement and necropolis in southern Upper Egypt (Luxor). The town's population was in excess of 5000 and it was particularly associated with the god Horus. In proto-dynastic times Hierakonpolis was the capital of southern Egypt. Discoveries of this period ar...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Hierakonpolis

Gerasa

A major Roman city of Judea (modern Jordan), founded by the Seleucids. Extensive remains include colonnaded street, forum, stadium, triumphal arch, theater, and temples to Athena and Zeus. Gerasa was one of the 10 cities of the Decapolis league.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Gerasa

Hatra

An ancient city between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in northern Iraq, founded as a military outpost by the Arsacids (Parthians) during the 1st century BC. It soon became the center of the small state of Araba and an important caravan city. Temples were built for the Sumero-Akkadian god Nergal...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Hatra

Segesta

Ancient city of Sicily, north of modern Calatafimi, which was the chief city of the Elymi. The Elymi may have been of Trojan origin; they are archaeologically indistinguishable in the Early Iron Age (c 1000-500 BC) from their Sicanian neighbors. Segesta had a Greek culture, but it often sided wit...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Segesta

Megiddo

A large tell on a natural hill in northern Palestine, a Biblical city. A town in the Early Bronze Age was built in the early 4th millennium BC and the site was sporadically occupied since the Neolithic and Chalcolithic. It became a great fortified center through its strategic position on the land...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Megiddo

Shuruppak

Ancient Sumerian city-state located south of Nippur in Iraq and originally on the bank of the Euphrates River. Excavations show three levels of habitation extending from the late prehistoric period to the 3rd dynasty of Ur (c 2112-2004 BC). The most distinctive finds were ruins of well-built hous...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Shuruppak

Herakleopolis Magna

An ancient Egyptian site that was the capital of the 20th nome of Upper Egypt and the cult center for the god Harsaphes. Its peak came when it was the capital of the 9th and 10th Dynasties of the First Intermediate Period (2181-2055 BC). The city was lost by the clan when Mentuhotpe II of the 11t...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Herakleopolis Magna

Eridu

A tell site at Abu Shahrain, identified as the ancient Eridu, the oldest city of Sumer - possibly the oldest in history. Occupation began in the 'Ubaid period, the earliest phase of which is named after this site, in the mid 6th millennium BC. A series of temples of the 'Ubaid and Uruk periods ha...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Eridu

Ajdabiya

A town in northeastern Libya near the Gulf of Sidra that was the site of Roman and Byzantine colonization and a caravan junction from Egypt to the Maghreb and a trans-Saharan route from the Sudan during the early Middle Ages. There are ruins from the earlier colonization and two important monumen...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Ajdabiya

Priene

Small Hellenistic Greek town in Asia Minor, important as settlement of 4th century BC. The lower city was laid out in a Hippodamian grid pattern. There was an acropolis, city walls, agora, bouleuterion, prytaneion, stadium, gymnasium, theater, and temples. It is important for these examples of 4t...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Priene

Nasik

A town in western India, an important religious center attracting thousands of pilgrims annually because of the sanctity of the Godavari River and because of the legend that Rama, the hero of the Ramayana epic, lived there for a time with his wife Sita and his brother Laksmana. Nasik is the site ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Nasik

Palmyra

Syrian city on caravan route from the eastern Mediterranean to the Euphrates; an ancient oasis town. Occupation was probably continuous since the 3rd millennium BC, but the town achieved prominence in the 1st century BC by exploitation of the caravan trade. Under Roman influence of Septimus Sever...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Palmyra

Pylos

A palace and town of the Mycenaeans, traditionally ruled by Nestor, and overlooking Navarino Bay on the west coast of the Peloponnese in Greece. It is perhaps the best preserved of all mainland palaces, built in the 14th century BC. A megaron with frescoed walls and painted floor opened on to a c...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Pylos

Elateia

An important Neolithic settlement site in central Greece, with the most complete stratified sequence of Greek Neolithic pottery deposits for the region. Radiocarbon dates place its beginnings c 5500 BC. A series of pottery styles has been recognized, starting with undecorated dark and light-surfa...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Elateia

Ebbsfleet

A small valley in southern England with an important series of loams and gravels spanning the last two glacial periods and intervening interglacial. Stone tools included Levallois flakes, but only a few hand axes and other tool types were found. The area has also given its name to a decorated pot...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Ebbsfleet

Olynthus

Ancient city of northern Greece, captured and destroyed by Philip of Macedon in 348 BC. Some late Neolithic settlement is followed after a gap by Iron Age occupation by Thracian tribes, perhaps from about 1000 BC. The 5th-4th centuries BC saw the classical Greek town caught up in alliances, misal...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Olynthus

Nea Nikomedeia

An Early Neolithic tell settlement in Macedonia in northern Greece. From a large structure (shrine?) in the center of the mound, there were terra-cotta female figurines thought to have been used in rituals. The remains of rectangular mud houses, a number of crouched burials, and plain and painted...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Nea Nikomedeia