Pyramids of the World: North America

The interesting thing about pyramids is that they are by no means exclusive to Egypt. There are pyramids all over the world. They’re in Northern, Central and South America, Europe, and in Asia. Some of these pyramids would not be recognizable as pyramids today because they have either deteriorated over time, or they were built in a different variation of the iconic Egyptian model with which most of us are familiar.

For instance, the Monk Mound is the base of a pyramid structure in Illinois, USA ( most pyramids in North America and Central America are called mounds due to the way they were built, along with their shape). It is one of the largest pyramid bases in the world, and is built similar to those in Asia because it was constructed from the surrounding soil instead of stone or bricks. This also explains why the Monk Mound doesn’t stand at its original height. Soil erodes, and seeing that the Monk Mound was constructed between 3000 and 1000 BC, much of the soil has weathered away. Scientists examining the ancient structure today have found that, “…The mound has dimensions of 92 feet in height, is 951 feet (290 meters) long and 836 feet (255 meters) wide. It’s base covers about 14.4 acres and has a volume of about 21,551,623 cubic feet (610274 cubic meters) and consists of more than 2.16 billion pounds of non-local soil types.” (Excerpt from: www.world-pyramids.com)

Originally, the mound would have been an array of beautiful colors. The Mound’s builders selected the many different soil-types for their color (this effect is lost now because it is covered in vegetation), with each layer selected and placed for stripes of various hues going up the pyramid.

The peoples responsible for this feat in ancient engineering are unknown and it is thought that the project may have been abandoned before it’s completion due to some form of a decline within this mystery society.

Other North American pyramids lie in the North Georgian and Mississippi area. The site is seven acres and is actually comprised of a series of structures (seven) called the Etowah Indian Mounds. The mound-builders were indigenous to the southern region of North America and were fairly advanced agriculturally, and in the art of making and decorating pottery. Their government was a chiefdom with linear, or, father to son, succession. Based on archeological findings, the society of the mound-builders was healthy and prosperous, and had relations with other mound-building cultures in the area. By 1540 however, the mound-builders’ society was in decline and the site was almost completely abandoned, an unfortunately common theme throughout the mound-building peoples of the Americas.

I’m considering on doing a series of posts on pyramids, let me know whether you thought this was interesting and if you’d like to see more.