Serpent Mound

The Great Serpent Mound is a 1,348-foot-long (411 m), three-foot-high prehistoric effigy mound located in Peebles, Ohio. It was built on what is known as the Serpent Mound crater plateau, running along the Ohio Brush Creek in Adams County, Ohio. The mound is the largest serpent effigy in the world. The first published surveys of the mound were by Ephraim G. Squier and Edwin Hamilton Davis, featured in their historic volume, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley (1848), commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution. The United States Department of Interior designated the mound as a National Historic Landmark in 1966. The mound is maintained through the Ohio History Connection, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving historical sites throughout Ohio. Effigy mounds have been constructed independently by several cultures. The significance of Serpent Mound is based on its size and historical relevance. Made up of three parts, Serpent Mound extends over 1,376 feet (419 m) in length, varying from 9" to over 3' (30–100 cm) in height. The mound stands with a width varying between 20 and 25 feet based on the section. Serpent Mound conforms to the surrounding land, as it was built on the bluff above the Ohio Brush Creek. The mound winds back and forth for more than eight hundred feet, with its tail coiling in seven areas throughout the mound. The mound features a triple-coiled tail at the end of the structure, often viewed as a benchmark of the mound. Yellowish clay and ash make up the main constituents of the mound, with a layer of rocks and soil reinforcing the outer layer. The open-mouth head of the serpent nearly engulfs a hollow oval feature that faces the east and is 120-foot (37 m)-long. This feature represents an egg, with an apparent depiction of the snake consuming it. Many scholars believe that the oval is a representation of the Sun, or the body of a frog. Others think it is the remnant of a platform mound. The western side of the effigy features a triangular mound approximately 31.6 feet (9.