Poverty Point is an archaeological site in northwestern Louisiana (near the town of Epps), overlooking the Mississippi River flood plain. It was constructed c. 1500 BCE by American Indians of the archaic Poverty Point Culture that inhabited the Mississippi Delta at that time. It is considered by some to be the first true city of North America.

The site is a wide, 400 acre (1.6 km²) plaza consisting of six concentric earthen ridges. The ridges may have originally been six feet high. Aisles intersected the ridges, leading directly from the center to the perimeter. 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. The earthen structures were built and enlarged for centuries, with the site reaching its final form at about 1000 BCE. At its height, a permanent population of several thousand people lived on Poverty Point's curving ridges. It is maintained by the National Park Service as the Poverty Point National Monument.

External links

• Poverty Point National Monument (National Park Service)