Humankind: Best Cultural Wonders of Each Era

Throughout history, the Human race has produced architectural marvels across the globe. Now, in Humankind, at a cost to your Influence, you can claim these Wonders to empower and add Fame to your empire.

Cultural Wonders are separate from the Natural Wonders that you can find on the map as each Era has a new set of Cultural Wonders for you to claim. Once claimed, another Culture can’t then build it, making the Wonder unique to your empire.

You’ll be able to claim new Wonders whenever your Influence hits specific benchmarks throughout the game. Knowing which Cultural Wonders you want is also important because you can’t claim another until you’ve built the last one that you claimed.

In this article, you’ll find the top Cultural Wonders of each Era in Humankind, including all of their bonuses and which type of playstyle they suit the best.

Pyramid of Giza (Ancient Era)

• Wonder Effects: +100 Fame, -25% on District Industry Cost
• Effects: +20 Stability
• Placement Prerequisites: Must be placed next to a River

Possibly the pinnacle of human ingenuity and engineering, the Great Pyramid of Giza is one of four Cultural Wonders available in the Ancient Era, appearing alongside Stonehenge, the Temple of Artemis, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

The most useful perk that comes from claiming the Pyramid of Giza is definitely the -25% District Industry Cost reduction, making it easier to expand your City early on and exploit more of the land while adding Stability.

As long as you have a River in the Territory that you want to build your first Wonder in, you’re good to go; it’s rare that you won’t find at least one River within a Territory.

Pairing the Pyramid of Giza with the Culture that built it, the Egyptians, is naturally a fantastic combination, further increasing the Egyptians’ Industry output in the early stages of games.

Statue of Zeus (Classical Era)

• Wonder Effects: +100 Fame
• Effects: +20 Faith, +40 Stability, +5% Money, +10 Stability on City or Outpost, +5 Science per Holy Site
• Placement Prerequisites: None

During the Classical Era, you’ll be able to claim the domineering Statue of Zeus. The great Greek construction appears alongside the Colossus of Rhodes, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

What puts the Statue of Zeus above the rest in the Classical Era is that, when you might begin to think about expansion, this Cultural Wonder brings a lot of Stability to any Territory that you place it in. The Wonder also delivers a decent Faith bonus for extra Stability and even a boost to your Money output.

Unlike the Lighthouse of Alexandria and the Colossus of Rhodes, there aren’t any restrictions to where you can place the Statue of Zeus. Although the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus also isn’t restricted by placement, it’s the bonuses that place it behind the Statue of Zeus in the running for best Wonder of the Classical Era.

This Cultural Wonder is best paired with a Militarist or Expansionist Culture like the Romans due to the high Stability output, allowing you to grow your empire while keeping the mob satisfied.

Angkor Wat (Medieval Era)

• Wonder Effects: +100 Fame
• Effects: +1 Food per Faith, +20 Faith, +40 Stability, +5 Science on Holy Site
• Placement Prerequisites: None

Currently the largest religious monument in the world, Angkor Wat can be claimed in the Medieval Era. This Era also comes with three other choices: the Forbidden City, Notre Dame, and Tōdai-Ji.

While some of the other Wonders in the Medieval Era are situationally useful, depending on how your game is going, Angkor Wat stands out as the most generally valuable to most empires in most situations on Humankind.

The combination of a high Stability and Faith boost with the +1 Food per Faith bonus sets this Wonder out from the rest, enabling you to grow your empire’s population quicker if you have a successful religion.

There aren’t any placement restrictions on Angkor Wat, allowing plenty of choice for where you can build it to get the most effective resource payout.

The Teutons of the Medieval Era are a great pairing with the bonuses of both the Culture and Wonder, further enhanced by growing your religion’s Influence across the map.

Machu Picchu (Early Modern Era)

• Wonder Effects: +100 Fame
• Effects: All of your Cities gain Food equal to 50% of the Food produced by Machu Picchu’s City, +20 Stability
• Placement Prerequisites: Must be placed on a Mountain

The final Era with four options of Wonders for you is the Early Modern Era. You can either claim Machu Picchu, the Taj Mahal, Topkapi Palace, or Saint Basil’s Cathedral, the best of which is the South American marvel.

The massive Food output that you can achieve from building this Wonder is what places it in the top spot for this Era of Humankind. Again, the other choices of this Era are very useful, but more to specific builds or playstyles that you might not be aiming toward.

Machu Picchu, on the other hand, is a Wonder that is incredibly useful to every Culture. It allows you to grow your population very quickly, especially if you’ve got a good Food output within the City of choice for your placement of the Wonder.

The one drawback to Machu Picchu is that it’s restricted to being placed on Mountains. This shouldn’t impact your resource generation from the Wonder too much, but it could affect where you end up building the Wonder, somewhat limiting its useability in Humankind.

Any Culture would benefit from owning Machu Picchu and its Food output, but an Agrarian Culture will get the most from the Wonder’s effects. The Haudenosaunee are the only Agrarians in the Early Modern Era, so they would make for the best fit if you need a good boost to your empire’s population.

Statue of Liberty (Industrial Era)

• Wonder Effects: +100 Fame
• Effects: +20 Stability, +10 Money per number of Territories in your sphere of Influence, +10 Science per number of Territories in your sphere of Influence
• Placement Prerequisites: Must be placed on Coastal Water

Only three Wonders are available in the Industrial Era: the Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, and Big Ben. Of the trio, the famous gift, the Statue of Liberty, is the standout Cultural Wonder to get.

The reward that you receive from the Statue of Liberty for growing your sphere of Influence can gift you a huge influx of Money and Science – both are incredibly useful resources when approaching the later stages of the game.

As long as you own a City with Coastal Water within the Territory, you won’t have a problem building and exploiting the Statue of Liberty to its full effect.

A good Militarist, Expansionist, or Aesthete Culture will get the most out of this Wonder for your empire, either by taking Territory for yourself or ensuring that your Influence is high enough to infect other factions’ Territories to bring them under your own sphere of Influence.

Christ the Redeemer (Contemporary Era)

• Wonder Effects: +100 Fame
• Effects: +20 Faith, +40 Stability. On all Cities: +10% Food, +10% Money, +10% Industry, +5 Science on Holy Site
• Placement Prerequisites: Must be placed on a Mountain

The last Era of Humankind also has three Wonders from which you can choose: Christ the Redeemer, the Sydney Opera House, and the Empire State Building. One of the seven wonders of the modern world takes the crown here, with the Christ the Redeemer statue boasting some amazing bonuses.

Adding a 10 per cent boost to Food, Money, and Industry for each of your Cities can give you a huge influx of valuable resources as you approach the end game. This bonus is largely why the Wonder is number-one, but the great Stability bonus and the extra Faith further cements Christ the Redeemer as the Contemporary Era’s best Wonder.

Just like Machu Picchu, Christ the Redeemer must be placed atop a Mountain to exploit its effects. In the Contemporary Era, this shouldn’t be a problem for any empire if you’ve managed to claim Territories throughout the Eras. This Wonder is incredibly versatile as pretty much any Culture can be paired with it and still realise its massive resource potential.

There you have it: the best Cultural Wonders of each Era in Humankind. Can you push the limits of Humanity and construct these engineering masterpieces for your own ends?

Looking for similar games? Check out our Age of Empires 3 civilisation guide!

Looking for Humankind guides?

Humankind: Best Science Build

Humankind: All Cultures in Each Era List

Humankind: Best Cultures for Each Playstyle

Humankind: Controls Guide for PC and How to Play