Ancient History Sites was created to make the ancient world easier to explore, both for study and for travel. The website’s distinguishing feature is its database of archaeological sites that can still be visited today. Many ancient places are hard to find, poorly marked, or rarely maintained; here they are brought together in one structured resource.
Sites with substantial remains and historical importance are highlighted, while smaller or less preserved places are included in regions where ancient heritage is otherwise scarce. A Roman fort in Romania, for example, may be featured as the best-preserved evidence in its area, though a site of similar scale would not appear beside Pompeii.
Around this practical resource, the website provides context: explaining the civilizations, histories, and structures behind the sites. The focus is anchored on the civilizations of Greece and Rome, with Rome understood broadly to include the Byzantine Empire, which preserved and transformed Roman institutions, law, and urban traditions for nearly a thousand years after the fall of the Western Empire.
From this core, the scope extends to their world:
- Predecessors: Earlier civilizations that influenced them, such as the Phoenicians.
- Rivals: Powers they confronted, including the Celts and Carthage in the west, and the Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sassanid empires in the east.
- Successors: States and cultures that took over their lands or continued their traditions: the Visigoths and medieval European kingdoms in the west, the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates in the east, as well as the Crusader states, Venetians, and Ottomans.
This framework makes it possible to follow the long story of continuity and change: from Phoenician trade, to Greek colonization, to Roman expansion, to Byzantine survival, and finally to Islamic, Ottoman, and medieval transformations.
The site does not only describe monuments, but also connects them to broader historical processes. Daily life content is included for major centers where evidence or strong inference allows, but it is not added for every site.
The overall aim is to connect archaeological remains, economic systems, and social structures into a coherent view of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine history, set within their wider Mediterranean and Eurasian world.
Please feel free to reach out with comments or suggestions.