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Earthen Platform Mounds Wayside

A wayside with the title, Earthen Platform Mounds with texts and illustrations. Full accessibility available here: https://www.nps.gov/cagr/wayside13.htm

Look at the mounds of dirt 100 yards ahead. They are man-made. Picture them 900 years ago, covered with buildings and plazas and people, all inside a rectangular 7-foot-tall wall. Imagine the work it would take to make such a 10-foot-tall base platform by hand, then build a complex like you see in this illustration atop it. Archeologists have found about 50 platform mounds like these here in southern Arizona. The mounds you see are about five feet taller today than they would have been centuries ago. National Park Service archeologists have covered these platforms with backfill to preserve and protect them. Backfilling involves reburying ruins with soil. This preservation method cannot stop deterioration, but it can slow down erosion and stabilize the site. Agricultural Connection? Archeologists find most platform mounds at the beginning or end of large canal systems.

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NPS / Hannah Schwalbe

Public domain:Full Granting Rights

Image

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, Code: CAGR

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, Pinal County, Arizona
Latitude: 32.996898651123, Longitude: -111.532997131348

NPS.gov Collection

03/09/2024

03/10/2024

Public Can View

Wednesday, March 13, 2024 4:46:43 PM

Wednesday, March 13, 2024 5:04:24 PM

IMG_5053.jpg

Canon Canon, Canon EOS 6D Mark II 250, EF16-35mm f/2.8L III USM

1/640 sec at f / 7.1

16 mm

ISO 250

Sunday, March 10, 2024 1:52:57 PM

jpg

3.5 MB

2024-03-12T20:51:46-04:00

Scenic