Now, come with me to Mountain, Georgia.

Sixteen miles east of the city of Atlanta, the towering granite monolith known as Stone Mountain rises over 800 feet above the surrounding terrain. The nearly vertical northeast face is currently home to a carving that is over an acre and a half in size, a tribute to heroes of the South in the American Civil War. This masterpiece of art was begun in 1916 and finally completed in 1972. There are certain features at the top of the mountain that existed in earlier times, but not today as you may have noted in this story. The area at the top of the dome was known to be sacred ground by generations of former civilizations. Some of the original Native American inhabitants of the region called it “Lone Mountain.”