Poverty Point National Monument
Louisiana

Poverty Point is located in the lower Mississippi valley of Louisiana near the Gulf Coast and the confluence of six major rivers. Strategically placed on numerous trade routes, the site of Poverty Point was large and influential.  It dominated much of the surrounding region and serving as a focus for innovation and growth. Unique in the configuration of its earthen structures—notably concentric, semi-elliptical ridges of great size—it had no equal in grandeur in its day. Earth-moving activities for the shaping of the wide plaza began about 1500 B.C. and while the construction history of the site is not well understood today, the earthen structures were built and enlarged for hundreds of years, with the site reaching its final plan at about 1000 B.C. The concentric semi-ellipses abut a bluff over the Bayou Maçon and enclose an open plaza covering an area of about 34 acres. Aisle-like openings run between the concentric rings, which are thought to have stood over six feet high. They may have functioned, at least partially, as living areas. Mound A, the largest mound at the site, rises to a height of over 70 feet and is adjacent to the eastern side of the great ridges. Mound A is complex in plan and shape and is thought to be birdlike.