Fort Ancient Earthworks

This is the most spectacular mound site I’ve seen so far. It was built by the Ancient people, who preceded the Hopewell people. The site is a flat peak that slopes precipitously down to the river, as you can see from this photo, taken from a lookout built on top of a mound.

The site itself is quite flat, with some burial mounds enclosed. The exterior mound is a chain that’s broken regularly. The breaks allow the important celestial events (like the most northerly point of the moon rising) to be observed.

There are places where pools of water were created by the mounds enclosing a dip.

There is a very narrow part where the southern and northern ends of the earthworks join and the road through Fort Ancient actually cuts into the mounds on both sides. You can see another burial mound very close to the road. This was a gateway between the two halves of the site.