Shielded from development and agriculture, many archaeological sites from ancient Greece have now become inadvertent safe harbours for plants and animals. In a 1,500-year-old pre-Incan pyramid surrounded by the bustling streets of Lima, Peru, small grey-brown geckos hide out in crannies, snacking on spiders and insects.
This lizard, the Lima leaf-toed gecko, is native to the Peruvian capital’s coastal desert setting, says Alejandra (Ale) Arana. But now the arid region is dominated by modern buildings and busy roads. With its habitat greatly reduced, the gecko population has dwindled to the point of becoming critically endangered.
Arana notes that the lizards live almost exclusively around huacas – pre-Hispanic sacred monuments scattered around Lima – such as the pyramid Huaca Pucllana. These archaeological sites are some of the only places left that feature the native desert ecosystem of this area of Peru.
“They are the only sort of natural landscape that we can find in the area,” says Arana, who first began studying the geckos as an undergraduate at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima and is now a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
The geckos aren’t the only species finding refuge amid ruins. In Italy, rare orchids flower around an Etruscan necropolis. In the ancient Greek religious centre of Delphi, researchers found what they believe is a new species of snail – just 2mm (0.08in) long – suspected to live only in that area. In recent years, two new species of lizard were identified in Machu Picchu that may have once had a wider range and today enjoy the relatively undisturbed conditions of the ancient sanctuary.
In some cases, these plants and animals have been confirmed to be thriving near sites of ancient myths and legends – stories which placed them in these very locations, from Odysseus’ oak tree to Socrates’ hemlock, suggesting an extraordinary connection over the millennia.
Around the world, archaeological sites have often been protected for decades, even centuries, to preserve their cultural value. Shielded from development and agriculture, many have now become inadvertent safe harbours for plants and animals. Now, as biodiversity declines around the globe, new research is showing just how deeply nature is integrated in cultural sites – and how preserving these extraordinary historical places can help protect rare species too. “It’s a functional part of the archaeological landscape,” says Panayiotis Pafilis, a professor in animal diversity at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, who led a recent study of the wildlife found at 20 Greek cultural heritage sites. “The key word here: it’s landscape, not just an archaeological site or an ecosystem.”
Human activity has “severely altered” an estimated 75% of the world’s land area, seriously impacting plant and animal life, according to a 2025 UN report. Vertebrate populations have declined by 73% since 1970, while almost two in five plant species face the threat of extinction.
These trends are also playing out at the local level. In Greece, where more than 21% of species are under threat, changes in land use are among the biggest pressures on wildlife, according to Panagiota Maragou, conservation director for WWF Greece. Habitat is increasingly fragmented. Climate change is an additional threat, increasing the intensity of wildfires, floods and other phenomena. Species and habitats are all affected differently, but there is a common factor to these pressures. “Most of them, if not all of them, are linked to human activities,” says Maragou.
Archaeological sites, though, have often stayed relatively unaltered as landscapes changed around them, Maragou observes. Site managers tend to seek to maintain a natural setting, making them hospitable for many kinds of wildlife. And many Greek archaeological sites have been preserved since the 19th Century.
“They were designed to protect antiquities, of course, not biodiversity. But for almost two centuries, it’s a well-protected place,” says Pafilis. “It’s a more or less stable environment.”(BBC)
