The Best Preserved Roman Archaeological Sites Around the World
Below a list of all Roman sites around the world is shown. Including the average rating by visitors, and the country the ancient Roman site is situated in. The methodology is further explained below. The lists only includes the category “Roman cities / areas” from the map.
Italy has (perhaps unsurprisingly) by far the largest number of Roman sites worth visiting. It is followed by Spain, Turkey, France and Greece, which together account for 2 out of 3 of all Roman sites.
|
Country
|
Number of Roman sites
|
|---|---|
| Italy | 60 |
| Spain | 39 |
| Turkey | 38 |
| France | 31 |
| Greece | 20 |
| Syria | 9 |
| Israel | 7 |
| Morocco | 6 |
| Tunisia | 6 |
| Algeria | 6 |
| UK | 6 |
| Libya | 5 |
| Jordan | 4 |
| Croatia | 4 |
| Portugal | 4 |
| Serbia | 3 |
| Lebanon | 3 |
| Bulgaria | 3 |
| North Macedonia | 3 |
| Cyprus | 3 |
| Albania | 3 |
| Austria | 2 |
| Ukraine | 2 |
| Romania | 2 |
| Luxembourg | 1 |
| Montenegro | 1 |
| Hungary | 1 |
| Switzerland | 1 |
| Egypt | 1 |
| Germany | 1 |
| Macedonia | 1 |
The number of reviews per country shown below tells us something about the number of visitors each site/country attracts. Egypt only has one site (Luxor), which is a very popular tourist destination. Countries with more sites such as Jordan, Israel, Greece, Cyprus and Turkey are also popular tourist destinations. Spain features relatively low in this list, this is probably the case because many of the sites are located somewhat far from popular tourist destinations. In contrast to Turkey, where the sites are often situated within an hour’s drive from beach resorts.
|
Country
|
Number of Roman sites
|
Average number of reviews per country
|
|---|---|---|
| Egypt | 1 | 18023 |
| Jordan | 4 | 12351 |
| Israel | 7 | 7853 |
| Cyprus | 3 | 5079 |
| Greece | 20 | 2502 |
| Turkey | 38 | 2285 |
| Germany | 1 | 2100 |
| Switzerland | 1 | 2010 |
| Italy | 60 | 1825 |
| Albania | 3 | 1756 |
| Serbia | 3 | 1605 |
| Lebanon | 3 | 1520 |
| Portugal | 4 | 1295 |
| Romania | 2 | 1275 |
| Spain | 39 | 1176 |
| Morocco | 6 | 950 |
| Macedonia | 1 | 786 |
| Ukraine | 1 | 712 |
| UK | 6 | 629 |
| Tunisia | 6 | 550 |
| Libya | 4 | 396 |
| France | 31 | 309 |
| Bulgaria | 3 | 276 |
| Austria | 2 | 248 |
| North Macedonia | 2 | 196 |
| Algeria | 6 | 148 |
| Croatia | 4 | 136 |
| Hungary | 1 | 97 |
| Syria | 7 | 63 |
| Montenegro | 1 | 59 |
| Luxembourg | 1 | 15 |
The table below shows the score visitors gave to the Roman sites. There is hardly any deviation between the scores, ranging between 4,8 for Egypt and 4,18 for Portugal. We could conclude that no matter where you visit, the site is worth going to.
|
Country
|
Number of Roman sites
|
Average score per Roman site
|
|---|---|---|
| Egypt | 1 | 4.8 |
| Israel | 7 | 4.71 |
| Tunisia | 6 | 4.68 |
| Serbia | 3 | 4.66 |
| Lebanon | 3 | 4.63 |
| Libya | 4 | 4.63 |
| Turkey | 38 | 4.61 |
| Cyprus | 3 | 4.6 |
| Ukraine | 1 | 4.6 |
| Luxembourg | 1 | 4.6 |
| Bulgaria | 3 | 4.57 |
| Albania | 3 | 4.57 |
| Algeria | 6 | 4.55 |
| Croatia | 4 | 4.53 |
| Greece | 20 | 4.52 |
| Switzerland | 1 | 4.5 |
| Macedonia | 1 | 4.5 |
| Germany | 1 | 4.5 |
| Hungary | 1 | 4.5 |
| Jordan | 4 | 4.5 |
| Syria | 7 | 4.47 |
| North Macedonia | 2 | 4.45 |
| Austria | 2 | 4.45 |
| UK | 6 | 4.43 |
| Italy | 60 | 4.42 |
| Spain | 39 | 4.40 |
| France | 31 | 4.33 |
| Montenegro | 1 | 4.3 |
| Romania | 2 | 4.25 |
| Morocco | 6 | 4.21 |
| Portugal | 4 | 4.18 |
Some of the listed Roman sites are hardly visited. We could assume this is the case for a reason: A lack of facilities, a lack of information or a lack of historical value. Therefore, I have created a new weighted average score to determine the “real” value of the site. The score is based on the assumption that less frequently visited sites have some sort of shortcoming, whereas frequently visited sites are so crowded the experience is reduced.
To calculate this new score, the score given by visitors to the site is added to the score based on the number of visitors. The score for the number of visitors is composed as follows:
- If less than 400 visitor reviews exist, a score of 3 is given.
- For Roman sites with between 400 and 5000 reviews, a score of 5 is given. These could be sites that are of reasonable size, good preservation but not overcrowded.
- For Roman sites with between 5000 and 10000 reviews, a score of 4 is given. These sites are often high quality but are starting to be slightly touristic.
- For Roman sites with more than 10000 reviews, a 3 is given. Even though the sites will most probably be of extremely high quality, suitable alternatives with almost the same value can be found. For example, the Colosseum has around 300000 reviews, whereas El Jem’s amphitheatre has only around 4000 reviews while being of similar quality. This is not to say the colosseum is not worth visiting of course, but the ranking can be used to find the “hidden gems”.
Sites with no reviews have been removed and for the below overview I have also removed countries with only 1 Roman site. All individual sites can of course be found in the first table on this page.
|
Country
|
Number of Roman sites
|
Weighted average score per country
|
|---|---|---|
| Turkey | 38 | 9.27 |
| Serbia | 3 | 9 |
| Lebanon | 3 | 8.97 |
| Cyprus | 3 | 8.93 |
| Albania | 3 | 8.9 |
| Israel | 7 | 8.86 |
| Libya | 4 | 8.63 |
| Greece | 20 | 8.52 |
| Jordan | 4 | 8.5 |
| Austria | 2 | 8.45 |
| Tunisia | 6 | 8.35 |
| Romania | 2 | 8.25 |
| Bulgaria | 3 | 8.23 |
| Spain | 39 | 8.2 |
| Portugal | 4 | 8.18 |
| UK | 6 | 8.1 |
| Italy | 60 | 7.97 |
| Morocco | 6 | 7.88 |
| Algeria | 6 | 7.88 |
| France | 31 | 7.78 |
| Croatia | 4 | 7.53 |
| Syria | 7 | 7.47 |
| North Macedonia | 2 | 7.45 |
Conclusion: Where can the best ancient Roman sites be found?
On average, Turkey features the best Roman sites. Turkey has many sites that are not too touristic, having English language information and an extremely good state of preservation. Serbia is a surprising second. The country is not yet popular for international tourism but does have some very high-quality sites.
Lebanon comes in third place. Baalbek, Tyre and Qalaat Faqra are three beautifully preserved sites. Although slightly touristic, the sites are great to visit.