The 22 Most Impressive Ancient Monuments in the World

The oldest pillars here were carved before farming reached most of the world; the youngest arches stood when Rome was still an empire.

1. 1
   Göbekli Tepe

   Hilltop enclosures of carved T-shaped pillars in Turkey, built some 11,000 years ago.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Parthenon

   Marble temple of Athena on the Athenian Acropolis, finished in 432 BC.
   999pts
3. 3
   Baalbek

   Roman temple complex in Lebanon built on some of the largest stone blocks ever quarried.
   811pts
4. 4
   Leptis Magna

   Roman city on the Libyan coast, rebuilt in marble by the emperor Septimius Severus.
   771pts
5. 5
   Colosseum

   Flavian amphitheatre in Rome that held tens of thousands of spectators.
   750pts
6. 6
   Pont du Gard

   Three-tier Roman aqueduct bridge over the Gardon river in southern France.
   750pts
7. 7
   Obelisks of Aksum

   Towering carved granite stelae of the Aksumite kingdom in northern Ethiopia.
   692pts
8. 8
   Abu Simbel

   Ramesses II's rock-cut temples in Nubia, fronted by four colossal seated statues.
   680pts
9. 9
   Ziggurat of Ur

   Stepped Sumerian temple platform in southern Iraq, built around 2100 BC.
   680pts
10. 10
    Pyramids of Giza

    Old Kingdom royal tombs outside Cairo; the Great Pyramid of Khufu rose about 146 metres.
    680pts
11. 11
    Persepolis

    Ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Persian kings, famous for its staircase reliefs.
    600pts
12. 12
    Terracotta Army

    Thousands of life-size clay soldiers buried with China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang.
    507pts
13. 13
    Petra

    Nabataean capital in Jordan whose tombs and temples were carved straight into the cliffs.
    507pts
14. 14
    Great Stupa at Sanchi

    Buddhist dome in central India first built under the emperor Ashoka in the third century BC.
    507pts
15. 15
    Teotihuacan

    Pre-Aztec city near Mexico City laid out around the Pyramid of the Sun and the Avenue of the Dead.
    400pts
16. 16
    Knossos

    Bronze Age palace of Minoan Crete, tied in legend to King Minos and the labyrinth.
    400pts
17. 17
    Carnac Stones

    Rows of more than 3,000 standing stones stretching across the Breton countryside.
    400pts
18. 18
    Pantheon

    Roman temple whose unreinforced concrete dome is still the largest of its kind.
    273pts
19. 19
    Hadrian's Wall

    Roman frontier wall running 73 miles across northern England.
    273pts
20. 20
    Library of Celsus

    Two-storey Roman library facade in Ephesus, once home to thousands of scrolls.
    273pts
21. 21
    Stonehenge

    Neolithic monument in Wiltshire whose giant sarsens were raised around 2500 BC.
    273pts
22. 22
    Newgrange

    Irish passage tomb, older than the Great Pyramid, whose chamber fills with light at the winter solstice.
    0pts

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