Best Earthwork

Double Negative is a land artwork created by Michael Heizer in 1969 on Mormon Mesa near Overton, Nevada. It consists of two large trenches cut into opposite edges of a natural canyon, so the absent rock and the intervening void form essential parts of the work. Approximately 244,000 tons of sandston...

Star Axis is a large earthwork and naked-eye astronomical observatory created by American artist Charles Ross in the New Mexico desert. Begun in 1976, its chambers, tunnels, and stairways are organized around alignments with celestial events and the changing position of Earth's rotational axis relat...

Broken Circle and Spiral Hill is a 1971 earthwork by American artist Robert Smithson, located in a sand quarry near Emmen in the Netherlands. It consists of two adjacent forms: a semicircular jetty enclosing a boulder in a body of water ('Broken Circle') and a conical mound carved with a spiral path...

The Poverty Point Earthworks represent an ancient complex of geometric earthworks located in present-day Louisiana. Constructed between 1700 and 1100 BCE by Archaic peoples, these sizable ridges demonstrate sophisticated planning and construction techniques. The site’s precise arrangement and scale...

The Amazon Geoglyphs of Acre are large geometric earthworks found in Brazil's western Amazonian state of Acre, primarily consisting of ditches and embankments forming circles, squares, hexagons, and octagons. Largely hidden beneath rainforest canopy, many became visible from the air and in satellite...

City is a massive land art sculpture located in Garden Valley, Nevada, created by American artist Michael Heizer. Construction of the earthwork began in 1972, and it was opened to the public in 2022 after five decades of ongoing development. The monumental project consists of complex arrangements of...

The Monks Mound stands as a significant archaeological site near present-day Collinsville, Illinois. Constructed by the Mississippian culture between approximately 900 and 950 CE, this massive earthwork is the largest pre-Columbian earthen mound in North America. It served as the central platform fo...

Amarillo Ramp is a large-scale earthwork and land art installation created by American artist Robert Smithson. Situated in an active quarry near Amarillo, Texas, the piece consists of a spiral ramp constructed from earth and basalt rocks that extends into a pond. It serves as Smithson's final projec...

The Newark Octagon Earthworks are ancient geoglyphs located in Ohio, created by the Hopewell people between approximately 200 BC and 500 AD. This large geometric earthwork features a precisely constructed octagon, notable for its alignment with lunar standstills suggesting astronomical observation a...

The Newark Great Circle Earthwork is an ancient geometric earthwork located in Ohio. Constructed by the Hopewell culture around 1 CE, it represents a significant example of their complex land management and astronomical knowledge. This large circular enclosure, measuring approximately 1200 feet acro...

The Ushtogaysky Square geoglyph is a large geometric earthwork located in Kazakhstan’s steppe region. Constructed using thousands of earthen mounds, it measures approximately 90 meters across. Its precise purpose remains unknown but scholars believe it represents an ancient cultural or religious pra...

Observatory is Robert Morris's land art work in Flevoland, Netherlands, a modern Stonehenge-like double-ring earthwork aligned with solstices and equinoxes.

The Butte du Lion, or Lion's Mound, is an artificial conical hill on the Waterloo battlefield in Belgium. It was constructed in the 1820s at the location traditionally associated with the wounding of William, Prince of Orange, during the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, and is crowned by a cast-iron lion...

Mound City Group is a Hopewell culture earthwork site located along the Scioto River near Chillicothe, Ohio. The site comprises 23 earthen burial mounds enclosed within a rectangular earthen embankment covering approximately 5.2 hectares, with an entrance on its eastern side. The mounds were constru...

The Serpent Mound is a prehistoric effigy earthwork located in Adams County, Ohio, shaped distinctively in the form of a curving serpent. Measuring approximately 1,348 feet in length, it is recognized as the largest surviving serpent effigy in the world. The exact cultural origin of the mound remain...

Fort Ancient Earthworks is a large Indigenous hilltop enclosure in southwestern Ohio, built by people of the Hopewell tradition roughly two thousand years ago. Its approximately 3.5 miles of earthen embankments and numerous gateways follow the contours of a plateau above the Little Miami River. Desp...

The Seip Earthworks is a large Hopewell culture ceremonial center located in the Paint Creek Valley of Ohio, USA, dating back to roughly 100 BC to 400 AD. The site is characterized by its massive geometric enclosures and a prominent central burial mound known as the Seip Mound. Excavations of the mo...

Lady of the North is another name for Northumberlandia, Charles Jencks's 400-metre-long land sculpture in Northumberland, opened to the public in 2012.

Northumberlandia is a 2012 reclining female landform near Cramlington, England, designed by Charles Jencks from 1.5 million tonnes of mine overburden.

The Roman Amphitheatre of Silchester is a 1st-century AD structure in England, notable for being one of the best-preserved Roman amphitheatres in Britain.

The High Bank Works is an ancient Hopewell culture earthwork complex located in Chillicothe, Ohio. Built between roughly 100 BCE and 500 CE, the site is distinct for its large octagonal geometric enclosure connected to a massive circular earthwork by a set of parallel embankment walls. Now part of t...

The Hopeton Earthworks are the remains of a Hopewell ceremonial complex near Chillicothe, Ohio, constructed roughly between 100 BCE and 400 CE. The site contained large circular and square earthen enclosures laid out with substantial geometric precision, along with parallel walls extending toward th...

The Amphitheatre of Silchester is a Roman ruin in Hampshire, England, constructed in the 1st century AD to accommodate roughly 7,000 spectators for combat sports.

The Bestamskoe Ring Geoglyph is a prehistoric earthwork structure in Kazakhstan, notable for its precise circular design that dates back roughly two millennia.

Late Archaic earthwork complex in Louisiana, USA, dated c. 1700–1100 BCE and featuring concentric semicircular ridges that rank it among North America's earliest large-scale earthen monuments.

The Turgai Swastika Geoglyph is an ancient earthwork located in Kazakhstan, notable for its three-pronged swastika shape discovered via satellite imagery in the 2000s.

The Turgai Cross Geoglyph is a massive ancient earthwork in the Turgai region of Kazakhstan, notable for its distinct cross shape spanning roughly 200 meters across.

The Amphitheatre of Tomen-y-Rhodwydd is an earthwork arena associated with a Roman military site in Wales, surviving principally through its landscape form.