Monumental Earthworks of Poverty Point

World Heritage

USA

🎧 Listen to Introduction

The Poverty Point Monumental Works are named for the 19th-century plantation adjacent to the site, which is located on slightly elevated, narrow terrain in the lower Mississippi River valley. The complex consists of five mounds, six concentric semi-elliptical ridges separated by shallow depressions, and a central plaza. It was built by a group of hunter-gatherers for residential and ceremonial purposes between 3,700 and 3,100 years ago. It is a remarkable achievement in North American earthen architecture, unmatched for at least 2,000 years.

# Mound

# Monumental civil engineering

# 19th Century Plantation

# Lower Mississippi River

# Hunter-gatherer

# Earthen buildings in North America

An aerial view of the earthworks at Poverty Point. Excerpt from USDA Agricultural Stabilization and ...

Steps (since removed) to top of Mound A

Artist's conception of the completely constructed site

Barrels outline circular structures in the 37.5-acre (17.4 ha) plaza at Poverty Point

Decorative objects formed from loess soil, then fired, found at the Poverty Point site

A map of the Poverty Point site

Mound B field

Mound A at Poverty Point

An overview of the Poverty Point site showing the locations of the nearby Motley and Lower Jackson m...

Show more pictures

Poem of the heritage generated by AI

Start Generation

Intangible culture related to the heritage

China tourist attractions related to the heritage

World heritage related to the heritage

Show more related heritage

Information extracted from Wikidata

area	163
object has role	Eliza Fraser
Atlas Obscura identifier	poverty-point-world-heritage-site
image	http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/PovertyPoint.jpg
owned by	National Park Service
operator	National Park Service
executive body	Poverty Point
volume as quantity	poverty-point-national-monument
ELSTAT geographical code	poverty-point-world-heritage-site
office held by head of the organization	http://g.co/kg/m/045xfg
Commons category	Poverty Point
subject has role	state historic site in the United States
coordinate location	Point(-91.408333333 32.6425)
coordinate location	Point(-91.4114 32.6367)
NRHP reference number	66000382
start time	1962-06-13T00:00:00Z

official website	https://www.nps.gov/popo
language of work or name	English
start time	2014-01-01T00:00:00Z
official name	Monumental Earthworks of Poverty Point
official name	Cerros monumentales de Poverty Point
official name	Tertres monumentaux de Poverty Point
official name	ポヴァティ・ポイントの記念碑的土構造物群
official name	Monumentale grondwerken van Poverty Point
heritage designation	National Register of Historic Places listed place
start time	1966-10-15T00:00:00Z