Pompeii
Pompei, Italy
Pompeii is the Roman town that Vesuvius buried in AD 79 and excavators have been uncovering since 1748.
687 tickets & tours
Europe
Best ancient sites in Europe
12 ancient sites in Europe, ranked by why it makes the list from the catalogue data. Each page tells you what to see, which ticket or tour to book and when to go.
| # | Site | Country | Why it makes the list |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pompeii | Italy | A whole Roman town buried in AD 79, with paved streets, bakeries, baths, theatres and houses whose frescoes still colour the walls. |
| 2 | Acropolis of Athens | Greece | The Parthenon, Erechtheion and Propylaia on their rock above Athens, the buildings that defined classical architecture for every century since. |
| 3 | Colosseum | Italy | The largest amphitheatre the Romans built, where you can walk the arena floor and the passages beneath it that held animals and gladiators. |
| 4 | Theatre of Epidaurus | Greece | The best-preserved theatre of ancient Greece, its limestone seats intact and its acoustics still carrying a dropped coin to the top row. |
| 5 | Diocletian’s Palace | Croatia | An emperor's retirement palace that became a living town, where Split's cafés, homes and churches fill the Roman walls, vaults and peristyle. |
| 6 | Pont du Gard | France | The three tiers of the Roman aqueduct bridge span the Gardon at full height, the most complete piece of Roman water engineering anywhere. |
| 7 | Roman Theatre of Merida | Spain | Two storeys of marble columns still rise behind the stage, at the heart of Spain's largest Roman city with its amphitheatre, bridge and temple. |
| 8 | Newgrange | Ireland | A guided walk down the stone passage into a corbelled chamber built around 3100 BC, older than Stonehenge and lit by the winter solstice sunrise. |
| 9 | Delos | Greece | An entire sacred island of temples, lion statues and mosaic-floored houses, reached by boat from Mykonos and empty of modern buildings. |
| 10 | Butrint | Albania | Greek, Roman and Byzantine Butrint lies in woods and marsh by a lagoon, with a theatre, baptistery mosaics and walls layered across two thousand years. |
| 11 | Stonehenge | United Kingdom | The great sarsen stones and lintels on Salisbury Plain, the most famous prehistoric monument in Europe, best seen early or on a stone-circle access visit. |
| 12 | Hagar Qim | Malta | Malta's temple complex of huge limestone slabs on a ridge above the sea, built around 3600 BC and so older than the Egyptian pyramids. |
Acropolis of Athens
Athens, Greece
The Acropolis of Athens is the limestone hill above the city crowned by the Parthenon, the marble temple of Athena…
114 tickets & tours
Colosseum
Rome, Italy
The Colosseum is the largest amphitheatre the Romans ever built, an oval of travertine about 189 metres long that held…
349 tickets & tours
Theatre of Epidaurus
Epidavros, Greece
The Theatre of Epidaurus is the best-preserved theatre of ancient Greece, built in the late 4th century BC inside the…
40 tickets & tours
Diocletian’s Palace
Split, Croatia
Diocletian's Palace is the retirement residence that the Roman emperor Diocletian built on the shore at Split…
31 tickets & tours
Pont du Gard
Vers-Pont-du-Gard, France
The Pont du Gard is the three-tiered Roman aqueduct bridge over the river Gardon near Remoulins in southern France,…
9 tickets & tours
Roman Theatre of Merida
Mérida, Spain
The Roman Theatre of Merida, built in 16 to 15 BC under Agrippa for the capital of Lusitania, is the centrepiece of…
1 ticket or tour
Newgrange
Donore, Ireland
Newgrange is a Neolithic passage tomb in the Boyne Valley, built around 3100 BC and so older than Stonehenge and the…
6 tickets & tours
Delos
Delos, Greece
Delos is the small island off Mykonos that the Greeks held sacred as the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, and its…
35 tickets & tours
Butrint
Sarandë, Albania
Butrint is an ancient port city on a wooded peninsula in southern Albania, near the Greek border, where Greek, Roman,…
34 tickets & tours
Stonehenge
Amesbury, United Kingdom
Stonehenge is a prehistoric stone circle on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, begun about 3000 BC, whose great sarsen…
175 tickets & tours
Hagar Qim
Qrendi, Malta
Hagar Qim is a prehistoric temple complex on a ridge above the south coast of Malta, built between about 3600 and 3200…
4 tickets & tours