12 lesser known ruins in the world

While places like Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat, and Petra grab the headlines, these sometimes overlooked monuments to the past make for memorable visits…and even better photos. Enjoy in this amazing collection of 12 lesser known ruins of the world and maybe some of it will inspire you to go and visit them while you’re on your vacation, not only the “mainstream” archeological places.

1. Palmyra, Syria This ancient desert oasis of a metropolis, 200km from Damascus, is at least 4,000 years old and can still be visited by camel caravan.

2. Borobudur, Indonesia Borobudur was an active Buddhist temple from the 9th to 14th centuries and is located rather precariously between two Javanese volcanoes.

3. Teotihuacan, Mexico Sitting less than an hour outside Mexico City, this pre-Aztec pyramid city may have been the most populous in the world during its heyday between A.D. 150 and 450.

4. Göreme, Cappadocia, Turkey The unique stone formations of this region in central Turkey were made even more picturesque when homes and monasteries (and today hotels) were carved into them beginning around A.D. 300.

5. Khara-Khoto, Inner Mongolia Marco Polo is said to have passed through this Mongol trading outpost before it was sacked by a Ming Dynasty army. Since then, the Gobi has slowly been taking up residence.

6. Wat Phu, Laos The lazy riverside town of Champasak is the gateway to these Khmer temple ruins, granted Unesco World Heritage status in 2001

7. Tikal, Guatemala Though only questionably qualifying as “lesser-known,” this stop on the Maya Trail did lose out on becoming a “New 7 Wonder of the World” to its cousin farther north, Chichen Itza.

8. Volubilis, Morocco The Romans sure got around, leaving behind their characteristic triumphal arches and columned temples in unlikely places — such as a few dozen kilometers outside of Meknes, Morocco.

9. Bagan, Myanmar This ancient Burmese capital and its 2,217 peaked-dome temples should be better known, but its location within a “rogue state” is holding it back.

10. Tiwanaku, Bolivia Tiwanaku (or Tiahuanaco) is still being excavated, as funds become available, but has already revealed countless secrets about a pre-Inca empire that ruled the Altiplano until A.D. 1000.

11. Mesa Verde National Park, USA The Anasazi’s cliff-carved city, built in the 11th century, is considered the largest in North America and is the centerpiece of this national park in the Four Corners region.

12. El Djem, Tunisia More evidence of the Roman presence in North Africa comes in the form of this ruined amphitheater — the ancient empire’s third largest.