Walk or drive south along the central road of the North Fort and notice the flat surface of the hilltop, with the walls on either side winding and narrowing toward the passageway approaching the Great Gate. To create Fort Ancient, generations of people must have worked toward a common goal. The first step would have been clearing the forests, a huge undertaking in itself.

Then, they scraped soil off the surface, filled in ravines, and constructed 67 walls and gateways, plus 131 ponds. Finally they brought up limestone from the river valley below to reinforce the walls and gateways, to create stone rings and circles, to build long runs of pavements, and to surface much of the outsides of the walls.