Stonehenge, Machu Picchu, Pompeii, Angkor Wat, the Acropolis: Even if you’ve never visited these famous ancient ruins, you know about them. And if you have visited them, you know they’re usually crowded—sometimes positively teeming with visitors. Picture yourself beside the Parthenon trying to imagine it painted in bright colors, as it originally was, while dodging tour groups led by flag-waving guides shouting facts.
All “must-see” places will be full of visitors; crowds at ultra-popular sites such as Mexico’s Chichén Itzá are simply unavoidable. This list of 18 ancient ruins worth traveling for spans Polynesia to Tunisia and includes the well-trod and the far-less visited.
1. Bagan, Myanmar
For Angkor Wat without the crowds, head to the ancient city of Bagan. The fields here are dotted with an estimated 2,300 temples, stupas (bell-shaped structures that may house Buddhist relics), and pagodas down from the roughly 10,000 built between the 11th and 13th centuries. The breadth of the ruins alone is impressive—everywhere you look you’ll find the rounded tip of a stupa or the hidden entrance of a tiny temple with a golden Buddha inside. Even more astounding is that there are so few tourists here; you can cycle down the main road flanked by temples and see only a few dozen visitors.
Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island) is a Chilean territory in Polynesia 2,200 miles west of mainland Chile.
Courtesy of Arian Zwegers/Flickr
2. Rapa Nui National Park, Chile
Rapa Nui (Easter Island) sits in the middle of the South Pacific 2,200 miles west of mainland Chile. It’s well known for its iconic moai, huge monolithic human figures that dominate the landscape. These haunting statues, depicting ancestors of the Rapa Nui people, vary in height from 6 feet to 60 and were erected during the 10th to the 16th centuries. You’ll need to travel to the most remote inhabited island on Earth to see them. That isolation led to distinctive artistic traditions, which include petroglyphs in stone houses and caves. Covering 40 percent of the island, the park contains hundreds of statues.
El Castillo, aka Temple of Kukulcan, is the star of Chichén Itzá.
Courtesy of Daniel Mennerich/Flickr
3. Chichén Itzá, Mexico
This is one of the most popular tourist sites across Mexico, drawing more than 2 million visitors a year. While you certainly won’t have these ruins to yourself, it’s still worth braving the crowds. A brilliant work of architecture and astronomy, the Pyramid of Kukulkán at Chichén Itzá is so precisely engineered that on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, the sun casts shadows that slither like snakes, seemingly descending its stairways. Said to represent the plumed-serpent deity Kukulkán, the shadows return twice yearly to drink from sacred sinkholes known as cenotes.
This phenomenon attracts thousands to the already packed archaeological site, but almost-identical light-play can be seen the day before, with a fraction of the visitors. Other attractions: a circular observatory, the Great Ball Court, and the Jaguar Temple.
The Ring of Brodgar, Scotland, is believed to be older than Stonehenge.
Courtesy of Dave Sutherland/Flickr
4. Heart of Neolithic Orkney, Scotland
Scotland’s Orkney Islands are rich in relics that hint at what life was like 5,000 years ago. You’ll find the Stones of Stenness, Maeshowe, Skara Brae, and the Ring of Brodgar—four monuments known as the Heart of Neolithic Orkney—on the archipelago’s largest island, Mainland. These late Stone Age remnants are well preserved, due in part to their location. Older than Stonehenge and far less visited, the dwellings of Skara Brae have been called the “Scottish Pompeii.” Stenness, an early henge monument, resembles a modern sculpture installation; Maeshowe is a chambered mound tomb (sporting Viking graffiti), and Brodgar’s large stone circle has 27 of the original megaliths still standing.
A 90-minute bus ride from Bangkok takes you back in time.
Photo by FocusStocker/Shutterstock
5. Ayutthaya, Thailand
Escape the colorful chaos of Bangkok and head for the historic capital of Ayutthaya, about 90 minutes away by bus. It’s a ghostly city of striking ruins and entangled wats (temples), and prang (reliquary towers), with brightly colored offerings contrasting with the aging stones and brick. King Ramathibodi founded Ayutthaya in 1350; located at the head of the Gulf of Siam, it was a trading center, with palaces and monasteries, one of the world’s largest cities in its heyday. Ayutthaya was the capital of the Siamese kingdom until its destruction by the Burmese army in 1767.
See the twin tombs of the Jabal Al Ahmar Necropolis at Hegra without mobs of tourists.
Courtesy of amanderson2/Flickr
6. Hegra Archaeological Site, Saudi Arabia
Unlike its famed distant cousin Petra, ancient Hegra has only been open to visitors for the past few years. It’s not yet swamped with tourists (Petra gets nearly 1 million a year). Hegra was an outpost of the Nabataean kingdom; it prospered from the 4th century B.C.E. until the 1st century C.E. The 100-plus tombs carved into sandstone that remain show Greek, Egyptian, and Roman influences. Many are inscribed in Nabataean (a variety of Aramaic) with dire warnings that the gods will curse anyone who dares to disturb a burial place. It became a UNESCO site in 2008, the first for Saudi Arabia, and the wells built here by Nabataeans are still used today. Visitors can fly into nearby AlUla, about 40 minutes away by car.
Caral-Supe, the most ancient city in the Americas, is in Supe Valley, north of Lima, Peru
Photo by Mark Green/Shutterstock
7. City of Caral-Supe, Peru
The UNESCO World Heritage site designation is essentially a reliable stamp of approval that means “visit here.” The ancient ruins of the sacred city of Caral-Supe, the oldest civilization center in the Americas, is one such site. Dating back more than 5,000 years, it is located in a desert near the Supe River, three and a half hours’ drive north of Lima. Its 150 acres feature sunken circular plazas, a tall temple, and earth-and-stone dwellings. Peruvian archaeologist Ruth Shady Sidal began excavations in 1994, and discoveries are ongoing. Carla-Supe’s weather-worn pyramids were built before the famous Egyptian pyramids.
Visitors are dwarfed by the Kailasa temple, cave 16, in the Ellora complex in Maharashtra, India.
Courtesy of Shankar S/Flickr
8. Ellora Caves, India
Nearly three dozen cave-temples were carved out of cliffsides during the 6th to 10th centuries, and the basalt rock-cut structures showcase Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain cultures. Elaborate cave 16, a freestanding Hindu temple hewn from solid rock, is dedicated to Lord Shiva and is twice the size of the Parthenon. The caves are 50 miles from the more famous Ajanta Caves, and all are located in the state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital. You might want to visit during the annual Ellora Ajanta Festival of classical dance and music.
The obelisks at Aksum date from the 1st to 13th century C.E.
Photo by Framalicious/Shutterstock
9. Aksum, Ethiopia
Back when the Roman Empire was powerful, the Kingdom of Aksum thrived in northern Ethiopia for some 10 centuries. The remains of this international trading center include palace ruins, royal tombs, and carved obelisks, aka steles. The tallest obelisk still standing is carved to resemble a building and rises more than 60 feet. As with the Acropolis and other historical ruins looted by various conquerors, in the case of Aksum, Italian soldiers took an obelisk in 1935 during their occupation of Ethiopia; it was returned in 2005. Other valuable remnants: stone tablets with trilingual inscriptions in Greek, Sabena, and what was then the local language, Ge’ez.
The archaeological site of ancient Olympia is where Olympic games began and where the Olympic torch today is ignited.
Photo by Georgios Kritsotakis/Shutterstock
10. Olympia, Greece
Although much is gone among the ruins of this sanctuary—including a gold and ivory statue that was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world—the serene setting survives. Today we associate Olympia with sports, but it began as a religious center. The Olympic Games, held every four years starting in 776 B.C.E., were part of a festival for Zeus. Romans and earthquakes later did considerable damage to the site, but more columns remain standing at the gymnasium than at the large temples here built for Hera and Zeus.
The Great Kyz Kala is a well-preserved fortress within the ancient city of Merv.
Photo by Kasbah/Shutterstock
11. Ancient Merv, Turkmenistan
The oldest of the oasis cities along Central Asia’s Silk Route, it’s believed that Merv was so prosperous that it boasted an icehouse (filled with winter snow). Its ruins cover four millennia, from the Bronze Age to the medieval period. Much of the city and its estimated 500,000 residents were destroyed by Genghis Kahn’s son, Tolui, in 1221. Five miles of walls once surrounded this city, complete with canals, libraries, and orchards. Besides fame for its steel, cotton, and melons, Merv was a cultural and scientific center. Omar Khayyam spent several years working at its observatory. Among the remains in this large archaeological park are a mosque, a Buddhist monastery, and several mausoleums. Travelers can fly to Mary, the nearest city, from Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat.
Join a ranger-led tour of the Cliff Palace, which has 150 rooms.
Photo by Jeffrey M. Frank/Shutterstock
12. Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
Mesa Verde’s hundreds of Ancestral Puebloan dwellings sit at an altitude of 8,530 feet and are the remains of a culture that lived here for nearly 900 years. Don’t miss the daily ranger-led tour of the Cliff Palace, which features 150 rooms and 23 kivas, or the more in-depth tour of the Long House. (Be ready to climb a few ladders.) When planning your visit, note that winter weather closes the cliff dwellings and that the park lodge is open from mid-May to mid-October.
At Prambanan temple compounds in Java, Indonesia, three of the largest temples are dedicated to the Trimurti: the Creator (Brahma), the Preserver (Vishnu), and the Destroyer (Shiva).
Photo by saiko3p/Shutterstock
13. Prambanan Temple Compounds, Indonesia
These hundreds of Hindu and Buddhist temples on Java, sometimes referred to as Candi Rara Jonggrang, date from the 9th century. Earthquakes (as recently as 2006) and volcanic eruptions have damaged the site over the centuries; the small temples have mostly collapsed. The tallest temples are dedicated to Vishnu, Brahma, and Shiva; bas-relief panels recounting the Hindu epic poem Ramayana decorate them. From May through October, the Ramayana Ballet performs outdoors at the temple compounds three evenings per week.
Large wheels of stone were used to block doorways in the old underground city of Derinkuyu.
Photo by Nina Lishchuk/Shutterstock
14. Derinkuyu Underground City, Türkiye
There’s more to see in Cappadocia than what you can view from a hot air balloon ride. Derinkuyu is the largest of two subterranean cities in Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia—an otherworldly landscape of hoodoos, fairy chimneys, and troglodyte villages. The Byzantine city housed up to 20,000 people on multiple levels, descending 18 stories underground, complete with ventilation shafts and ways to obtain water. It provided refuge during sieges. Thick stone wheels served as doors to block intruders, and miles-long tunnels link Derinkuyu to other underground settlements.
The Grand Plaza with the North Acropolis and Temple I (Great Jaguar Temple) at Tikal
Photo by WitR/Shutterstock
15. Tikal, Guatemala
Surrounded by jungle are the dramatic remains of this Mayan site, inhabited for some 1,500 years. The ancient capital city of Tikal may have had 90,000 residents at its peak. Its most famous features are more than two dozen large temples in the shape of stepped pyramids, some among the tallest pre-Columbian structures in the Americas. Its remote location combined with fewer tourists visiting Guatemala than its neighbor, Mexico, means you won’t be elbowing people out of the way to see these ruins up close.
Another place to view ruins of an ancient Roman city: Volubilis in Meknes, Morocco
Photo by Deyan Denchev/Shutterstock
16. Volubilis, Morocco
This 5,000-year-old city, an hour and a half northwest of Rabat, was founded by the Berbers and later became a distant outpost of the Roman Empire. It was occupied for 10 centuries and saw a mingling of cultures, among them Mauritanian, Roman, Christian, and Arabo-Islamic. Given the ruins’ isolation, climate, and long abandonment, the remaining structures—including an aqueduct, thermal baths, and a triumphal arch—are in good shape, despite earthquake damage. Especially noteworthy are the mosaic floors in the House of Orpheus, the biggest of the excavated residences.
Abu Simbel is as impressive as the Great Pyramids but sees far fewer tourists.
Photo by Emanuele Mazzoni Photo/Shutterstock
17. Abu Simbel, Egypt
The impressive Great Pyramids of Giza rightfully earn their Wonder of the World title, but don’t overlook Abu Simbel. Ramses II is present at every turn, as is his wife Nefertari. Four giant likenesses carved into sandstone walls look out over Lake Nasser. Inside, it’s pure Indiana Jones, with magnificent hieroglyphics and rows and rows of columns at every turn. The temple is dedicated to sun gods, and twice a year, on February 22 and October 22, the sun’s rays travel the site’s 185-foot depth to fully illuminate its interior.
The Roman ruins of Carthage sit near the Mediterranean.
Photo by Travel-Fr/Shutterstock
18. Carthage, Tunisia
Carthage sits in modern-day Tunis; it was founded by the Phoenicians in 814 B.C.E. and quickly developed into a buzzing trading port where ships coming from Sicily would dock before continuing along the coast of North Africa. As was so often the case, the Roman Empire wanted in and attacked Carthage in the second and third centuries B.C.E., eventually gaining control. Among the Roman ruins are the Antonine Baths and the reconstructed Roman-era theater, which hosts the annual International Festival of Carthage each July, with performances by classical and contemporary musicians.
This article was originally published in 2021 and most recently updated on December 6, 2024, with current information. Sophie Friedman contributed to the reporting of this story.
