Mexico and Central America have plenty of ancient, monumental structures (e.g., Chichen Itza). But the continental US and Canada do not. Why?
In: Engineering
There are HUNDREDS of monumental structures, mostly centered in south/central Ohio, into Indiana and Illinois, Kentucky and West Virginia—but also in the Mississippi Valley farther south in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Texas.
The Ohio River Valley was the cultural center of the Hopewell tradition, arguably the most advanced ancient civilization in North America—and Southern Ohio was the epicenter of ceremonial and cultural monument building.
Ohio’s ancient earthworks just gained UNESCO certification, they are astounding monuments. The Newark earthworks are HUGE, and one aligns with the 18 year moon cycle. Very advanced and precisely laid out, the monuments display just how wise and observant the ancient Natives really were.
Many earthworks have been destroyed, in Ohio only about 20% remain, but there are still enough preserved in local, state, and national parks and preserves to where you can spend a week traveling and visiting them and still not see them all.
Serpent Mound in Ohio is an incredible and mystical place to visit. There is debate on how old the monument is, but it is well over 1000 years old at least, and it is truly magnificent. It’s hard to visit such a place and not feel something visceral and deep within yourself.
There are. It’s just that this climate is different. We had a lot more mound builder cultures and those mounds are still here.
Chaco Canyon is amazing, well worth a visit. You can camp overnight. Being in New Mexico it is very well preserved.
There are. Here is one near Cincinnati: [Serpent Mound State Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_Mound)
there are. The people who lived there just mainly lived in temporary structures, so its mostly their art we see. occasionaly there is a non art example like the Mesa Verde cliff caves. an entire town carved into a cliff
There are a few that are still here and federally protected but the truth is we destroyed them to show the indigenous people how we were gonna dominate them.
Aa others have mentioned, [Cahokia Mounds](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahokia) is the largest. I’d also like to mention:
– [Medicine Wheel](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_Wheel/Medicine_Mountain_National_Historic_Landmark)
– [Chaco Canyon](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaco_Culture_National_Historical_Park)
– [Chimney Rock](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimney_Rock_National_Monument)
– [Emerald Mound](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Mound_and_Village_Site)
There are – Mississippian culture, for example. Also, survivorship bias can get very strong when a culture decides to use organic materials instead of, say, stone or metal. Climate also affects longevity. Happens quite frequently, in fact. We’re only recently beginning to realize that the Copper/Bronze Age in Europe and the Caucasus was probably a lot more complex and advanced than we initially thought. The problem was that a lot of cultures never had writing, and never used very much inorganic material, and so their material culture never survived.
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