The most elaborate of the site’s three major passages is called the “Great Gateway.” The road rises to a narrow ridge, the original north entrance to the oldest part of the enclosure.

Passing in and out along the ridge took the ancient visitors past mounds, crescents, and limestone pavements; as if to remember the first generations of ancient ancestors, perhaps the first who made this hilltop a sacred place, and a shared monument. The paired Crescent Mounds, one on each side of the road north of the Gate, help form this passage.

Historical image of the road as it approached from the outside of the older Great Gate; the walls swell into the form of two mounds.