Map of Sacred Sites around the World | Endangered Sacred Sites | Lost Sacred Sites | Saved Sacred Sites
What is a sacred site?
Sacred sites are locations that have been set aside from the places we encounter in our everyday lives and generally fall within two general categories: built structures or natural places. They have been set aside because they are deemed to have a spiritual or religious purpose and sacred meaning within a cultural context. These places may be associated with sacred stories, ceremonies, rituals and practices.
Some general categories and types of sacred sites are:
- Built Sites: Built sites may have remarkable architecture and/or a historic relationship with sacred land and/or environments. They may include:
- Temples
- Churches
- Shrines
- Altars
- Places of pilgrimage
- Ruins, sites previously occupied
- Firepits
- Natural Sites: Natural sacred sites are often part of a greater sacred landscape (on land or below water) with many sacred sites that are related to one another and therefore interconnected. These sites may include:
- Rivers and their sources
- Springs and their sources
- Wells
- Mountains
- Rocks and rock outcroppings
- Trees and tree groves
- Forests
- Caves
- Islands
- Cultural Sacred Landscapes, storyscapes
- Origin Sites
- Pilgrimage Routes
- Sacred Ceremonial areas
- Rock/Plant Shrines – Mani stones
- Gathering places for sacred plants
- A place for entering the spirit world
- Archaeological Sites:
- Archaeoastronomy and calendric sites
- Megaliths: stone circles, menhirs, dolmens
- Traditional architecture like historic American Indian dwellings
- Kivas
- Pictographs and petroglyphs
- Temple Ruins
- Totem Poles
- Significant alignments
- Burial Sites and Massacre Sites:
- Burial grounds of native peoples
- Historic cemeteries
- Mass burial sites
- Massacre sites
- Memorials, including contemporary sites like Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial
- Shellmounds and other cultural mounds
Sacred sites are located all around the world, as depicted in the maps below.
Sacred Sites International has compiled a list of endangered, lost/damaged, and saved sites, along with a brief description of each. For more details, and to learn more about these sites, please explore the following:
Endangered Sacred Sites | Lost Sacred Sites | Saved Sacred Sites
Endangered Sites
Endangered Sacred Sites
- Belgian Megaliths (Wallonia, Belgium)
- Black Hills (South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming, United States) – included on the 2005 SSIF Endangered Sites List
- The Black Madonnas of Southwest France (Racamadour, Aubas, and Limeuil, Perigord & Quercy regins, Southwest France)
- Callanish (Outer Hebrides Islands, Scotland)
- Carnac, Locmariaquer, and Gavrinis Megaliths (Morbihan Department, Brittany, France)
- Carnic Massif and the Sacred Places of Rosia Montana (Romania) – included on the 2005 SSIF Endangered Sites List
- Dampier Rock Art [aka Dampier Archipelago], including Burrup Peninsula (Murujuga, Australia) – included on the 2005 SSIF Endangered Sites List
- Dangsannamu, Jocheon-eup, Jeju Island, (South Korea)
- Easter Island [Rapa Nui] (Pacific Ocean – west of Chile)
- Endoinyo Ormoruwak [aka “Small Hill of the Elders”] (between Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru in Tanzania)
- Hazaribagh Plateau (India) – included on the 2005 SSIF Endangered Sites List
- Sitagarha Hill, Marwatari Buddhist Site
- Banadag Megalith Site
- Bawanbai Hill
- Hensler Petroglyph Site (Wisconsin, United States) – included on the 2008 SSIF Endangered Sites List
- Hill of Tara and the Sacred Landscape of Skryne Valley (Ireland) – included in the 2005 SSIF Endangered Sites List
- Hueco Tanks State Historic Park (Texas, United States)
- Ivanovo Medieval Rock Churches (Ivanovo, Bulgaria)
- Kaya Forests (Kenya)
- Lake Baikal (Siberia, Russia)
- Lascaux Cave (Montignac, France) – included on the 2008 SSIF Endangered Sites List
- The Little Chapel of the Fourteen Bunders (Brock of Blaasveld, Anterpen, Belgium – near Willebroek)
- Llullaillaco & Other High Altitude Ruins of the Andes (The Andes Mountain Range – Southern Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Northern Chile)
- Machu Picchu (Peru)
- Mangyu Gompa Monastery (Ladakh, India) – included on the 2005 SSIF Endangered Sites List
- Mayan Temples of Yachilan & Piedras Negras (Usumacinta River – Mexico/Guatemala border)
- McCloud River Watershed (California, United States) – included on the 2008 SSIF Endangered Sites List
- Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba (Cordoba, Spain)
- Mount Hood (Oregon, United States)
- Mount Taylor (New Mexico, United States) – included on the 2013 SSIF Endangered Sites List
- Mount Tindaya (Fuerteventura, the Canary Islands, Spain)
- Mukurwe Wa Nyagathanga (Kenya, Africa) – included on the 2013 SSIF Endangered Sites List
- Nan Madol (Pohnpei, US Micronesia)
- Newgrange (Boyne Valley, County Meath, Ireland)
- North Karanpura Valley (India) – included on the 2005 SSIF Endangered Sites List
- Eastern North Karanpura Valley
- Isco Rock Art Site
- Barwadi Punkhri Megalith
- Barwadi Punkhri Buddhist Site
- Eastern North Karanpura Valley
- Octagon Mounds (Ohio, United States) – included on the 2005 SSIF Endangered Sites List
- Sarmizegetusa (Orastie Mountains, Romania)
- Seokguram (Gyeongju, Korea)
- Site of Palmyra (Palmyra, Syria)
- Stonehenge (Wiltshire, Western England)
- Tassili-n-Ajjer (Algeria)
- Tibetan Sacred Lake – Yamdrok Tso (Tibet)
- Weris Dolmens (Belgium)
- Wirikura Mountain [aka Cerro Quemado] (Mexico) – included on the 2013 SSIF Endangered Sites List
Lost Sacred Sites
Lost Sacred Sites
- Armenian St. Kevork [Saint George] Church (Allepo, Syria) – included on the 2013 SSIF Lost Sites List
- Barabaig Burial Grounds (Tanzania)
- Berkeley Shellmound (Berkeley, California, United States)
- Dalfsen Burial Ground (Overijssel, The Netherlands)
- Devic Monastery (near the town of Skenderaj, Kosovo)
- Emeryville Shellmound (Emeryville, California, United States) – included on the 2008 SSIF Lost Sites List
- Jobar Synagogue (Damascus, Syria) – included on the 2013 SSIF Lost Sites List
- Keka’a Black Rock (Ka’anapali Beach, Lahaina, Hawaii, United States)
- Kopse Hof Bronze Age Stone Circles and Cairns (Nymegen, the Netherlands)
- Lower McCloud River (Redding, California, United States) – included on the 2008 SSIF Lost Sites List
- Putiidhem Village (San Juan Capistrano, California, United States) – included on the 2008 SSIF Lost Sites List
- Umayyad Mosque (Allepo, Syria) – inlcuded on the 2013 SSIF Lost Sites List
- Volcanic Tableland Petroglyphs (Inyo County, California, United States) – included on the 2013 SSIF Lost Sites List
Saved Sacred Sites
- Alta Petroglyphs (Alta, Sapmi, Norway)
- Bear’s Lodge [aka Devil’s Tower] (Wyoming, United States)
- Bok Kai Temple (Marysville, California, United States)
- Borger Long Dolmen, (Drenthe, Netherlands)
- Chartres (Northern France)
- Coldwater Springs (Mendota, Minnesota, United States)
- Eathorne Menhir (Cornwall, England)
- Eldridge Street Synagogue (New York City, New York, United States) – included on the 2008 SSIF Saved Sites List
- Gavrrinis (Isle of Goats), Brittany, France
- Glastonbury (Somerset, England)
- Huialoha Congregational Church (Maui, Hawaii, United States) – included on the 2013 SSIF Saved Sites List
- Kakadu National Park (Australia)
- Kukaniloko Royal Birthing Stones (Oahu, Hawaii, United States) – included on the 2013 SSIF Saved Sites List
- Mary Ellen Pleasant Burial Site (Napa, California, United States) – included on the 2013 SSIF Saved Sites List
- McCloud River Watershed (California, United States) – included on the 2008 Saved Sites List
- Mt. Shasta
- Panther Meadow and its Sacred Spring
- Medicine Lake Highlands
- Medicine Lake Highlands (near Mount Shasta, California, United States)
- Miami Circle (Miami, Florida, United States)
- Moku’ula (Lahaina, Hawaii, United States)
- Moku’ula and Loko Mokuhinia [aka King Kamehameha III’s Royal Complex] (Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, United States) – included on the 2008 SSIF Saved Sites List
- Mount Shasta (California, United States)
- Nine Mile Canyon (Price, Utah, United States)
- Ocmulgee Old Fields (Macon, Georgia, United States)
- San Bruno Mountain Shellmound (South San Francisco, California, United States)
- Schoonhoven Mosaic Circle (Southern Netherlands)
- Silbury Hill (Wiltshire, England)
- Statue of Saint Sara (the crypt of Notre-Dame-de-la-Mer in the Camargue region of Provence, France)
- Taktsang (Bhutan)
- Town of Assisi (Assisi, Italy)