Parks, protected areas, and geographic heritage sites

Zephyrion

Zephyrion (Greek Ζεφύριον, "west wind") names several ancient places: the Halikarnassos peninsula with Maussollos' palace and secret harbour, the harbor city under modern Mersin, and a Black Sea port.

Zereia/Zeira

Zereia/Zeira: otherwise unknown fortress in Chalcidice, besieged and razed by Philip II of Macedon in 349 BC at the start of his campaign against Olynthus; location unidentified.

Zervae/Zirinae

Zervae/Zirinae (Zirinis, Zervis, Zurbis), a Roman to Late Antique road station on the Via Egnatia in Thrace near Kornofolea, Evros, Greece, on the right bank of the Hebros river.

Zeus Aglaios (temple)

Zeus Aglaios (temple), also called the sanctuary of San Biagio alla Venella, is an extra-urban Greek sanctuary of Zeus Aglaios ('resplendent') in the chora of Metaponto, southern Italy, founded late 7th century BC and identified by an inscribed cippo.

Zeus Ainesios (temple)

Sanctuary of Zeus Ainesios (Zeus Aineios), an ancient mountaintop cult site on Mount Ainos, Kefalonia, attested by Hesiod and Strabo, shown on coins of Pronnoi, but never archaeologically confirmed as temple or altar.

Zeus Atabyrios (temple)

Sanctuary of Zeus Atabyrios on Mt Atabyros, Rhodes; pan-Rhodian open-air cult with no temple, centered on a 3rd-century BC Ionic court altar; excavated 1927 by Jacopi, restudied 2012-2015.

Zeus Hypatos, T.

Zeus Hypatos (Ζεὺς ὕπατος, "Zeus the Supreme") is a cult epithet of Zeus used by Homer and attested at cult sites in Boeotia, Athens (Pnyx, acropolis), and Paros (Mt Kounados), distinct from Zeus Hypsistos.

Zeus Panhellenios sanctuary (Aegina)

Sanctuary of Zeus Hellanios (Zeus Panhellenios) on Hellanion Oros, the highest mountain of Aegina; founded in myth by Aiakos, with archaic terraces of c. 500 BC, Hellenistic buildings, and a Swiss-Greek excavation uncovering Mycenaean refuge remains since 2023.

Zeus, T.

Zeus, T. is the gazetteer designation for a temple of Zeus, covering the Olympia temple (ca. 475–455 BC, Pheidias's statue), Nemea, Athens, and the Zeus Thenatas sanctuary at Amnisos, Crete.

Zgliczyn-Pobodzy

Zgliczyn-Pobodzy, a village in Bieżuń commune, Masovian Voivodeship, Poland, is the site of a Przeworsk culture settlement and cemetery with a Lubieszewo-type princely burial, Roman coin finds, and excavations since 1977.

Zhalong

Zhalong (扎龙湿地), the Zhalong National Nature Reserve in Heilongjiang, China, is a 210,000-hectare reed-marsh Ramsar wetland on the lower Wuyu'er River, famed for red-crowned cranes and sustained since 2001 by ecological water replenishment.

Zhangjiajie National Forest Park (张家界国家森林公园)

Zhangjiajie National Forest Park (张家界国家森林公园), China's first national forest park (1982), in Wulingyuan, Hunan; 4,810 ha of quartz sandstone pillars within the Wulingyuan World Heritage site, Global Geopark, and AAAAA attraction.

Zhangye National Geopark (张掖国家地质公园)

Zhangye National Geopark (张掖国家地质公园), also Zhangye Danxia Geopark, in Gansu, China: Rainbow Mountains of colorful folded sandstone, Binggou window-lattice Danxia, Nine Springs ophiolite; national geopark 2011, UNESCO Global Geopark 2020.

Zhangye UNESCO Global Geopark

Zhangye UNESCO Global Geopark, also called Zhangye Danxia, is a 2020-designated UNESCO Global Geopark in Gansu, China, on the northern Qilian Mountains slopes, known for the colored Tertiary sandstone hills of the Coloured Mountains and Ice Gullies.

Zhengzhou Botanical Garden

Zhengzhou Botanical Garden (郑州植物园) is a free municipal botanical garden in Zhongyuan District, Zhengzhou, Henan, covering 1,035 mu with 1,876 species, 15 specialized gardens, and Henan's only tropical plant exhibition greenhouse, a 5,400 m2 bianzhong-inspired hall with ground-source heat pump climate control.

Zhivy Kutok

Жывы куток (Belarusian "living corner") is a small institutional nature exhibit with live animals, common in Belarusian schools and kindergartens; typical animals are mice, chinchillas, rats, turtles, and birds.

Zhongar Biosphere Reserve

Zhongar Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO MAB site in Kazakhstan's Zhetysu Alatau, designated 2018, 645,548 ha, protects Central Asian mountain ecosystems and the wild apple gene bank of Malus sieversii.

Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site (周口店北京人遗址)

Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site (周口店北京人遗址), Choukoutien, a limestone cave system 42 km southwest of Beijing where Homo erectus pekinensis, stone tools, and early fire-use evidence were found; UNESCO World Heritage since 1987; original fossils lost in wartime.

Zhouzhi Biosphere Reserve

Zhouzhi Biosphere Reserve, Shaanxi, China; UNESCO biosphere reserve designated September 2025 in the Qinling Mountains, built on Zhouzhi National Nature Reserve (1986); 69,004 ha, Qinling panda, golden snub-nosed monkey, world's largest kiwi production base.

Ziarat Juniper forests Biosphere Reserve

Ziarat Juniper forests Biosphere Reserve: UNESCO MAB site in Balochistan, Pakistan, designated 2013; 112,851 ha holding Pakistan's largest Juniperus excelsa forest, ancient trees over 1,500 years old, markhor and black bear habitat.

Ziggurat of Ur

The Ziggurat of Ur, also called the Great Ziggurat, is a Neo-Sumerian staged temple tower at Ur, Iraq, built by Ur-Nammu around 2100 BC for the moon god Nanna; best preserved of Mesopotamian ziggurats, excavated by Woolley, UNESCO-listed since 2016.

Zigong UNESCO Global Geopark

Zigong UNESCO Global Geopark (自贡) is a geopark in Sichuan, China, designated in 2015, known for Middle Jurassic dinosaur fossil sites at Dashanpu and a 2,000-year-old well-salt industry.

Zimara

Zimara (Ζιμάρα), ancient town and Roman frontier fort in southern Lesser Armenia on the upper Euphrates, near modern Pingan, Turkey; attested by Pliny, Ptolemy, the Antonine Itinerary, and the Tabula Peutingeriana; not the Syrian city Simyra.

Zion National Park

Zion National Park, southwestern Utah: 148,732-acre park where the Virgin River cut a deep canyon through Navajo Sandstone. Utah's most-visited national park, over 4.9 million visits in 2024, second in the US; mandatory shuttle, Angels Landing permits, The Narrows.

Zip line

Zipline (zip line, zip wire, flying fox): a pulley on an inclined steel cable ridden by gravity, used for recreation, canopy tours and cargo. Distinguished from Zipline, the drone delivery company.

Zlonice

Zlonice (German: Slonitz, Zlonitz) is a market town in Kladno District, Central Bohemia, 6 km from Slaný; first mentioned 1318, linked to Dvořák's First Symphony and an old Jewish cemetery.

Zohor

Zohor (Slovakia, Malacky District) is a major polycultural archaeological site at Zohor-Piesky on the Amber Road, with a Germanic princely settlement, Lübsow-group graves, and Bronze Age layers; distinct from al-Zuhūr, Egypt.

Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen

Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex (Zeche Zollverein), Essen, Germany: former coal mine and coking plant, 1851-1986, designed by Schupp and Kremmer in Bauhaus style; UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, criteria (ii)(iii), now Ruhr Museum site.

Zolotoy Kurgan

Zolotoy Kurgan (Золотой курган, Altyn-Oba), meaning Golden Kurgan, was a large stone-built burial mound on the outskirts of Kerch, Crimea, raised in the 5th–4th centuries BC over three crypts of Bosporan nobility.