Country guide
United States
The United States sacred-site map spans Indigenous homelands, mission churches, Marian shrines, contemplative monasteries, desert pilgrimage landscapes, and newer places of spiritual gathering.
129 sacred sites across 53 regions. Use the tradition and site-type filters to narrow in.
Atlas summary
United States sacred sites overview
Sacred sites in the United States are often best understood by region: Southwestern ceremonial landscapes, Catholic and Orthodox pilgrimage shrines, Native American sacred mountains, healing springs, and urban houses of worship all sit in the same atlas.
Use this page to move from broad geography into specific traditions and site types, then compare individual site pages for access notes, cultural context, and nearby sacred places.
| Coverage | 129 sacred sites across 53 regions. |
|---|---|
| Regional clusters | |
| Traditions | |
| Site types | |
| UNESCO heritage | 6 UNESCO-tagged sites in this country guide. |
By tradition
Showing 49-96 of 158 sites in this country guide
Guadalupe Peak, Texas
Salt Flat, Texas, United States
Rising 8,751 feet above the Chihuahuan Desert, Guadalupe Peak stands as one of the four sacred mountains of the Mescalero Apache, where creation narratives place their...
Hala Sultan Tekki
Dromolaxia - Meneou Municipality, Cyprus, Cyprus
On the western shore of the Larnaca Salt Lake in Cyprus, an Ottoman mosque and mausoleum complex marks the burial place of Umm Haram, a woman from the Prophet Muhammad's...
Hikiau Heiau, Hawaii
Captain Cook, Hawaii, United States
On the shore of Kealakekua Bay, massive stones rise in witness to what came before and what persists....
Hikinaakala Heiau, Kauai
Kapaa, Hawaii, United States
At the mouth of the Wailua River on Kauai's eastern shore, the foundation stones of Hikinaakala Heiau mark the exact point where the rising sun first touches the island....
Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks
Newark, Ohio, United States
The Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks rise from Ohio's rolling landscape as monuments to a 2,000-year-old vision....
Horseshoe Bend
Page, Arizona, United States
A thousand feet below the overlook, the Colorado River completes its patient arc through Navajo Sandstone, forming the near-perfect horseshoe that has drawn both...
Hovenweep Ruins, Utah
Shiprock Agency, Utah, United States
On the high desert where Utah meets Colorado, stone towers stand at the edges of canyons, their windows aligned with solstice and equinox....
Iao Valley State Park, Maui
Wailuku, Hawaii, United States
In the West Maui Mountains, mist drifts through a valley that has been sacred to Hawaiians for centuries....
Inyan Kara Mountain, Wyoming
Sundance, Wyoming, United States
Rising from the Wyoming plains at the western edge of the Black Hills, Inyan Kara Mountain holds profound significance for the Lakota people as part of an interconnected...
Island Lake, Colorado
Silverton, Colorado, United States
Island Lake near Silverton offers what might be called a contemporary nature pilgrimage....
Jeffers Petroglyphs, Comfrey, Minnesota
Comfrey, Minnesota, United States
On a ridge of red Sioux quartzite in southwestern Minnesota, approximately five thousand rock carvings stretch across one of the oldest continuously used sacred sites in...
Joshua Tree National Park, California
Joshua Tree, California, United States
Rising from the meeting place of two deserts, Joshua Tree's otherworldly landscape of giant granite boulders and twisted trees has drawn seekers for millennia....
Kakadu National Park
West Arnhem Region, Australia
Kakadu National Park holds the longest continuous record of human habitation on Earth....
Keahiakawelo (Garden of the Gods), Hawaii
Lanai City, Hawaii, United States
On the remote northwestern shore of Lanai, red rock towers rise from barren earth in formations so otherworldly that visitors struggle to reconcile them with typical...
Kilauea
Volcano, Hawaii, United States
On Hawaii's Big Island, Kilauea volcano rises as the dwelling place of Pele, goddess of fire and creator of the Hawaiian Islands....
Kincaid Mounds, Brookport, Illinois
Brookport, Illinois, United States
For 350 years, Kincaid Mounds served as the heart of a chiefdom where thousands gathered for ceremony, governance, and trade....
Kizhi Pogost, Kizhi Island
Kizhi, Republic of Karelia, Russia
Rising from an island in Lake Onega, Kizhi Pogost stands as the supreme achievement of Russian wooden architecture....
Kukaniloko Birthstones, Hawaii
Wahiawa, Hawaii, United States
In the pineapple fields of central Oahu, stones rise from the earth that are not quite stones....
Lake Jackson Mounds, Tallahassee, Florida
Tallahassee, Florida, United States
In the rolling hills north of Tallahassee, six earthen mounds rise from the red clay of Florida's Panhandle....
Lake Mungo
Willandra Lakes, New South Wales, Australia
In the dry lakebed of outback Australia lies evidence of humanity's earliest spiritual practices—a woman cremated with ceremony 42,000 years ago, a man laid to rest with...
Lassen Peak, California
Mineral, California, United States
Lassen Peak stands as the southernmost active volcano in the Cascade Range and ancestral homeland of the Atsugewi, Yana, Yahi, and Mountain Maidu peoples....
Maria Stein Shrine of the Holy Relics
Maria Stein, Ohio, United States
In rural western Ohio, surrounded by farmland and the steeples of over thirty cross-tipped churches, the Maria Stein Shrine of the Holy Relics holds one of the largest...
Marksville mounds
Marksville, Louisiana, United States
For two thousand years, the mounds at Marksville have held the dead. The Marksville culture that built them was connected by trade and ceremony to peoples across North...
Mauna Kea, Hawaii
Hilo, Hawaii, United States
Mauna Kea rises nearly 14,000 feet above Hawaii Island, a dormant volcano that Native Hawaiians call Mauna a Wakea, the first-born mountain child of Sky Father and Earth...
Meteor Crater, Arizona
Coconino County, Arizona, United States
Fifty thousand years ago, a nickel-iron meteorite crossed the boundary between space and earth, excavating a crater nearly a mile wide in the Arizona high desert....
Mo'okini Heiau
Hawi, Hawaii, United States
On a windswept point at the northern tip of Hawaii's Big Island stands Mo'okini Heiau, one of the oldest temples in the Hawaiian archipelago....
Mounds State Park, Indiana
Anderson, Indiana, United States
Twenty-two centuries ago, the Adena people began building earthen circles in what is now central Indiana....
Mount Adams, Washington
Trout Lake, Washington, United States
Rising 12,276 feet above the Columbia Plateau, Mount Adams is one of five sacred sister mountains for the Yakama Nation....
Mount Diablo, California
Contra Costa County, California, United States
The Ohlone call it Tuyshtak—'at the dawn of time.' The Bay Miwok say the world began here, after a great flood....
Mount Graham, Arizona
Safford, Arizona, United States
Mount Graham rises 10,720 feet in southeastern Arizona, home to the Ga'an—the mountain spirits who guide Apache life....
Mount Royal Mound, Florida
Welaka, Florida, United States
At the edge of Lake George in northeast Florida, a mound rises from the wetlands where the St. Johns River flows north....
Mount San Jacinto, California
Riverside County, California, United States
Mount San Jacinto rises nearly two vertical miles above the Sonoran desert floor outside Palm Springs, creating one of the most dramatic vertical landscapes in North...
Mount Shasta
Siskiyou County, California, United States
Mount Shasta rises 14,179 feet from northern California flatlands, a snow-capped volcano visible for a hundred miles....
Mount Tamalpais
Marin County, California, United States
Mount Tamalpais rises 2,571 feet above San Francisco Bay, a mountain sacred to the Coast Miwok for thousands of years and recognized by the Lakota as the 'Holy Right Eye...
Mount Wollumbin
Tweed Shire Council, New South Wales, Australia
Mount Tomorri rises 2,416 metres above southern Albania, visible from Berat and the Osum River valley....
Mt. Baboquivari, Arizona
Tucson, Arizona, United States
Baboquivari Peak rises from the Sonoran Desert as the most sacred place of the Tohono O'odham people....
Mt. Haleakala, Maui
Kula, Hawaii, United States
At 10,023 feet above the Pacific, Haleakala's summit crater opens onto a landscape that resembles no other place on Earth....
Mt. Hesperus, Colorado
Mancos, Colorado, United States
At 13,232 feet in Colorado's La Plata Range, Hesperus Mountain rises as Dibe Ntsaa—the Sacred Mountain of the North—one of four peaks that mark the boundaries of Dinetah,...
Mt. Hood, Oregon
Government Camp, Oregon, United States
Mount Hood rises 11,249 feet above the Oregon landscape, a glacier-clad volcano visible from Portland and throughout the region....
Mt. Humphreys, Arizona
Flagstaff, Arizona, United States
Humphreys Peak rises to 12,637 feet above the high desert of northern Arizona, the remnant of an ancient volcano and the highest point in the state....
Mt. Katahdin, Maine
Millinocket, Maine, United States
For the Penobscot and Wabanaki peoples, Katahdin is not merely Maine's highest peak but the sacred heart of their homeland....
Mt. Marcy, New York
Town of Keene, New York, United States
Mt. Marcy stands 5,344 feet above the Adirondack wilderness, the highest point in New York State....
Mt. Rainier, Washington
Ashford, Washington, United States
Rising 14,411 feet above the Pacific Northwest, Tahoma—known to settlers as Mount Rainier—has been sacred to the Puyallup, Nisqually, Muckleshoot, Yakama, and Cowlitz...
Mt. Richland-Balsam, North Carolina
Near Waynesville, North Carolina, United States
At 6,053 feet, Richland Balsam rises as the highest point on the Blue Ridge Parkway and the mythological dwelling place of Judaculla, the most powerful figure in Cherokee...
Mt. Taylor, New Mexico
Cibola County, New Mexico, United States
Mount Taylor rises to 11,301 feet above the desert of western New Mexico, a dormant stratovolcano visible from vast distances....
Mt. Washington, New Hampshire
Gorham, New Hampshire, United States
Mount Washington rises 6,288 feet above northern New Hampshire, the highest peak in the northeastern United States....
Multnomah Falls, Oregon
Corbett, Oregon, United States
Multnomah Falls plunges 620 feet down basalt cliffs in the Columbia River Gorge, the most visited natural site in the Pacific Northwest....
Mystery Hill, New Hampshire (America’s Stonehenge)
Salem, New Hampshire, United States
On a wooded hillside in Salem, New Hampshire, a labyrinth of stone chambers, walls, and standing stones awaits those drawn to the unexplained....
Showing 49-96 of 158 sites
Key questions
United States sacred-site questions
- What sacred sites can I explore in United States?
- Pilgrim Map lists sacred places in United States across living worship sites, heritage landmarks, pilgrimage destinations, and culturally significant landscapes. The current guide lists 129 sites organized by region, tradition, and site type.
- Which traditions are represented in United States?
- The most represented traditions include Indigenous, Christianity, Multi-faith, Ancient Greek and Roman, Islam, Celtic and Prehistoric.
- How should I plan a sacred-site visit in United States?
- Start with regional clusters, compare nearby places on the map, then open individual site pages for coordinates, etiquette, and sacred context where available.
- Can I view United States sacred sites on a map?
- Yes. Switch to map view to compare geographic clusters, then open individual site pages for coordinates, visiting context, and related places.