The Hal Saflieni Hypogeum on the island nation of Malta is one of Europe’s only known neolithic necropolises. Around 4000 BCE, the island’s ancient inhabitants started making structures that ritualized life and death. For the Hypogeum (from the Greek words “under” and “earth”), builders expanded on an existing cave network, carving into soft limestone.

Constructed in the third millennium BCE, a pyramid-like structure known as a ziggurat loomed large over the Sumerain city of Ur, located in present-day Iraq. While the shrines were dedicated to old Mesopotamian deities like Nanna the moon god, the area is also of interest to modern Christians, as it is believed to be the birthplace of Abraham.

Evidence indicates that Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, spread across a hillside near the Syrian border, was built sometime during the 10th millennium BCE, which makes it around 11,500 years old. According to anthropologists, it was a place of communal worship and a site of sacred rites. The ceremonial site consists of some 50 T-shaped pillars decorated with animals such as wild boars, jaguars, and carrion birds.

According to legend, in 593 CE the governor of the region Saeki no Kuramoto was looking for a place to help three deities settle, and was led by a divine crow to Itsukushima Island. Since then, the island itself has been considered divine. To honor those deities, the gorgeous Itsukushima Shrine appears to float on the water at high tide but can be traversed on the ground at low tide.

The ancient Mayan city of Chichén Itzá is located in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, about 120 miles from Cancun. Perhaps its most famous structure is a step pyramid called the Temple of Kukulcán. The pyramid was said to be the place where the feathered serpent god Kukulcán (similar to the Aztecs’ Quetzalcoatl) would descend from the heavens into the underworld.

Before there was the Great Mosque in Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca, there was the Kaaba, a considerably smaller cube-shaped structure that now sits at the mosque’s center. Traditionally thought to be constructed by Abraham on the site of Adam and Eve’s creation, the Kaaba (which means “cube” in Arabic) is Islam’s holiest shrine and considered to be the house of God.

The Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by Babylonians in 538 BCE. It was rebuilt and then destroyed again by Romans in 70 CE. However, the Western Wall (sometimes called the Wailing Wall) has survived and is a sacred pilgrimage site for Jews, who pray for the temple to be rebuilt. It is also customary for visitors to write prayers on pieces of paper and slip them between the cracks of the wall.

The Shaolin Temple in the Henan Province of China was built around 495 CE, and was where Bodhi Dharma, an Indian monk who helped spread Buddhism in China, invented the practice that eventually morphed into kung fu. In 621 CE, fighting Shaolin monks helped save a Tang dynasty prince, and they continue the tradition of kung fu by taking on new students at the temple today.

Today, hundreds of sphinxes line the 1.5-mile trail between Egypt’s ancient Luxor temple and the Temple of Mut in Karnak. Completed by King Nectanebo — who reigned from 380 to 362 BCE — the avenue originally featured some 1,350 sphinxes, which combined the body of a lion and the head of Nectanebo and were each inscribed with his name.

Located on the Acropolis hilltop in Athens, the Parthenon is one of the most recognizable symbols of ancient Greece. Completed in 436 BCE, the 23,000-square-foot temple was dedicated to the city’s namesake goddess of wisdom, Athena Parthenos. Though the marble temple has been damaged over the millennia, its basic structure remains intact today and attracts visitors from all over the globe.