When most people hear the words “lost ancient cities,” their first thought is of Atlantis, which, as I discuss in this post I made back in 2019, is definitely fictional and never really existed. There are, however, many very real and highly significant ancient cities whose exact locations are still unknown or disputed. Perhaps the most famous example is the ancient city of Akkad; most people have heard at some point of the ancient Akkadian Empire and its founding king Sargon of Akkad (ruled c. 2334 – c. 2279 BCE), but not everyone knows that archaeologists still aren’t sure exactly where this famous ancient city was. Strong evidence suggests that it was somewhere in the area of modern Baghdad, but no one has ever conclusively identified its ruins.
Akkad is far from the only ancient city that has so far eluded modern archaeology. In this post, I will discuss other major ancient cities that are still “lost” and where archaeologists currently hypothesize they may have been.
Where is ancient Akkad?
Archaeologists have pretty good idea that Akkad was located somewhere in the general vicinity of modern Baghdad. Numerous references in ancient cuneiform texts indicate that the city was in central Mesopotamia at a crossing point on the Tigris River. For instance, an Old Babylonian manuscript, which claims to have been copied from an earlier manuscript dated to the reign of Sargon, mentions boats docked at Akkad’s wharf, which shows that it must have been on the river.
An itinerary dated to the Old Babylonian Period that begins in Mari (a site in Syria west of the Euphrates) positions Akkad between the identified cities of Sippar (located just west of Baghdad within the Baghdad Governorate) and Tutub (located eleven kilometers east of Baghdad) en route to Eshnunna, which lies east of Baghdad, across the Tigris River.
Other ancient references imply that Akkad was located relatively close to Eshnunna. In narrative texts people traveling from Eshnunna seem to reach Akkad quickly and a prisoner list from the reign of Rîm-Anum of Uruk groups prisoners from Eshnunna and Akkad together. The fact that archaeologists haven’t identified the ruins of Akkad itself after over a century of searching suggests that it may be someplace inaccessible to excavation (e.g., underneath modern Baghdad or its suburbs).
All the most commonly supported hypotheses for the location of ancient Akkad place it within a thirty-kilometer radius of modern Baghdad. Its close proximity to the modern city is the major inhibiting factor to identifying its exact location, since the area around Baghdad is highly urban and densely populated, making it impossible to excavate most parts of that area.
ABOVE: Photo from Wikimedia Commons showing one part of the densely urban modern-day city of Baghdad
Other lost ancient cities
Archaeologists also don’t know the exact location of the city of Thinis, which was the first capital of a united Egypt during the Early Dynastic Period. Most scholars agree that it was located somewhere in the area of Abydos, possibly at Girga or Birba, but the exact site is disputed.
We also don’t know the exact location of Itj-tawy, which was the capital of Egypt during the Twelfth Dynasty, which was the height of the Middle Kingdom. We have a pretty good idea that Itj-tawy is somewhere near the site of al-Lisht, where Amenemhat I and Senusret I (both pharaohs of the Twelfth Dynasty) built their pyramids, but, as with Akkad, no one has ever conclusively identified the city’s ruins. Today, most of the area where the city might have been is covered by agricultural fields, although a modern town also exists there.
ABOVE: Photo from Wikimedia Commons of the pyramid of Amenemhat I at al-Lisht, one of the two royal Twelfth-Dynasty pyramids at the site. Itj-tawy was probably somewhere relatively close by, but we don’t know exactly where.
There are many other ancient cities whose locations are known, but which are not accessible for archaeologists to excavate. Notably, archaeologists know the location of the ancient city of Babylon and have excavated approximately 5% of the remains of the city from the first millennium BCE, but the remains from the time of Hammurabi lie underneath the water table and are therefore not accessible for excavation.
Many other highly important ancient cities are largely inaccessible to excavators because their ruins lie underneath modern cities, such as Athens, Alexandria, Rome, and Constantinople. Having a modern city on top of it is the most common reason why a major ancient city cannot be excavated.
ABOVE: Photo from Wikimedia Commons showing some of the ruins of Babylon, taken between September 26 and October 12th, 1932
What ancient cities have been excavated the most? Probably ones without modern cities on them, but which ones?
Amateur and professional archaeologists have been excavating Pompeii on and off for nearly three centuries since it was first rediscovered by accident in 1738 and it is quite possibly the most thoroughly excavated city of the ancient Mediterranean world. Even there, however, archaeologists have still only excavated somewhere between one half and two thirds of the ancient city; at least a third of it is still buried and, unfortunately, the excavated parts of the city are rapidly disintegrating due to exposure to the elements and heavy tourism.
i wonder if there was any cities in Dagggerland. And Storrega landslide/tsunami made them disappear. Or not that long ago, sahara had precipitation levels as central europe has today.
how many cities were not built from stone, mud bricks, but just from sticks and animal hides so it would be impossible to even have any record of them at all. or similar system of civilization as long forgotten towns of amazonia. with only small mounds which would eventually disappear into dust / sand movements / disintegrate in post humid sahara / north sea movements…
A good article, and feels like a return to the old days of the blog!
I guess another factor when it comes to excavations of ancient cities is politics/stability of the area; I don’t imagine there will be many archaeological digs in Afghanistan anytime soon for instance.
Thanks! I’m hoping to start posting more frequently than I have been. This post was a shorter one and less in-depth. I think part of what has been holding me back from posting more frequently has been the feeling that I need to make all my posts detailed and comprehensive, but, at this point, I figure that I can’t let perfect get in the way of the good.
Yes, politics and area stability are absolutely huge factors in deciding which cities archaeologists can excavate.
Thank you for your post regarding a few ancient lost cities. Try collecting ancient/classical coins and figure out where those cities were! There are many unsure locations even though we know the names. The Greeks traveled widely around the Mediterranean, building new settlements and incorporating the indigenous peoples villages into their cities. While reading the history of Sicily over the years, in old and new books, I came across the names of ancient cities that took a lot of time to figure out where they were located, if possible. Names had changed over time, spellings were different, locations moved, especially depending on what part of the world won over the island during wars or marriages. Takes some major research.
Is not a city per se, but one ancient lost place you missed to mention would be the Punt Civilization.
AFAIK, these days it’s usually asociated with Northern Somalia, but nobody has actual evidence to point to that place and say “yup, Punt was definitely there” and historians think it might as well been located in modern day Saudi Arabia or along the Eritrean shores.
Archaeologists actually may have located Punt. SciShow has a great video talking about how genetical evidence from ancient Egyptian mummified baboons may have provided a decisive clue to Punt’s location.
That video about Punt was an interesting detective story to follow. Thanks for including it in your response.
You’re welcome! I’m glad that you enjoyed it.
Would it still be okay to ask why you deleted a certain past article?
I deleted my post from 2017 about how the days of the week received their names because it was factually inaccurate. There is no evidence to support the claim that the concept of a seven-day week with days named after the planets goes back to the Babylonians. Scholars actually don’t know where the days of the week originate from; we only know that the names of the days we know are first attested in Roman Italy in the late first century BCE. The earliest known reference to a day with one of the modern weekday names (Saturday) occurs in the Roman poet Tibullus (fl. c. 55 – c. 19 BCE). Two graffiti from Pompeii (one in Latin, the other in Greek), which date no later than 79 CE, list the names of the days of the week in order.
Peter Gainsford has an excellent blog post in which he discusses the evidence for the origins of the days of the week, which I recommend reading.
Good to know, but I thought of the one where you compared the YouTuber Sargon of Akkad to his historical namesake (and imagined the latter’s opinion of the former)
I just wish I could comment on those old articles.
Love your blog! What do you think about Hisarlık as the ancient site of Troy? Is there any book you would recommend about anything at all that can be said about the archeological study of that site that might relate, even very remotely, to Homer’s Iliad?
The cities being lived in definitely explains a lot.
I remember reading on Reddit that there’s an entire kingdom that archeologists still don’t know where it was located.
However, giving that Reddit is not a credible source, I wonder if you can confirm this fact?
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/l7w5z4/the_lost_kingdom_of_punt_mentioned_often_in/
I actually addressed the kingdom of Punt in a comment above! Recent evidence strongly points to it having been in what is now Eritrea in the Horn of Africa.
Professor McDaniel,
While reading a blog post from February, it struck me, that I am very impressed with your dedication, and believe the presentation and video skills might be the easy part.
If you can read ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος , you already have an authority that a lot of people crave inside of a seemingly growing niche. A lot of online discussions consist of theories about the LXX, Josephus and the early church, mostly made by illiterates who can not read the originals. It seems like a heroic journey is in order. There’s some interest in the acquisition of the language of our first poets. please do not stop.