# 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.

*By YPB Team · Published September 29, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-22-most-impressive-ancient-monuments-in-the-world*

---

## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Göbekli Tepe** — score 1000/1000
   Hilltop enclosures of carved T-shaped pillars in Turkey, built some 11,000 years ago.
2. **Parthenon** — score 999/1000
   Marble temple of Athena on the Athenian Acropolis, finished in 432 BC.
3. **Baalbek** — score 811/1000
   Roman temple complex in Lebanon built on some of the largest stone blocks ever quarried.
4. **Leptis Magna** — score 771/1000
   Roman city on the Libyan coast, rebuilt in marble by the emperor Septimius Severus.
5. **Colosseum** — score 750/1000
   Flavian amphitheatre in Rome that held tens of thousands of spectators.
6. **Pont du Gard** — score 750/1000
   Three-tier Roman aqueduct bridge over the Gardon river in southern France.
7. **Obelisks of Aksum** — score 692/1000
   Towering carved granite stelae of the Aksumite kingdom in northern Ethiopia.
8. **Abu Simbel** — score 680/1000
   Ramesses II's rock-cut temples in Nubia, fronted by four colossal seated statues.
9. **Ziggurat of Ur** — score 680/1000
   Stepped Sumerian temple platform in southern Iraq, built around 2100 BC.
10. **Pyramids of Giza** — score 680/1000
   Old Kingdom royal tombs outside Cairo; the Great Pyramid of Khufu rose about 146 metres.
11. **Persepolis** — score 600/1000
   Ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Persian kings, famous for its staircase reliefs.
12. **Terracotta Army** — score 507/1000
   Thousands of life-size clay soldiers buried with China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang.
13. **Petra** — score 507/1000
   Nabataean capital in Jordan whose tombs and temples were carved straight into the cliffs.
14. **Great Stupa at Sanchi** — score 507/1000
   Buddhist dome in central India first built under the emperor Ashoka in the third century BC.
15. **Teotihuacan** — score 400/1000
   Pre-Aztec city near Mexico City laid out around the Pyramid of the Sun and the Avenue of the Dead.
16. **Knossos** — score 400/1000
   Bronze Age palace of Minoan Crete, tied in legend to King Minos and the labyrinth.
17. **Carnac Stones** — score 400/1000
   Rows of more than 3,000 standing stones stretching across the Breton countryside.
18. **Pantheon** — score 273/1000
   Roman temple whose unreinforced concrete dome is still the largest of its kind.
19. **Hadrian's Wall** — score 273/1000
   Roman frontier wall running 73 miles across northern England.
20. **Library of Celsus** — score 273/1000
   Two-storey Roman library facade in Ephesus, once home to thousands of scrolls.
21. **Stonehenge** — score 273/1000
   Neolithic monument in Wiltshire whose giant sarsens were raised around 2500 BC.
22. **Newgrange** — score 0/1000
   Irish passage tomb, older than the Great Pyramid, whose chamber fills with light at the winter solstice.

Tags: travel, landmarks, archaeology