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.
132 sacred sites across 75 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 | 132 sacred sites across 75 regions. |
|---|---|
| Regional clusters | |
| Traditions | |
| Site types | |
| UNESCO heritage | 6 UNESCO-tagged sites in this country guide. |
By tradition
Showing 97-144 of 181 sites in this country guide
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....
Murujuga Cultural Landscape
Dampier / Karratha, Western Australia, Dampier / Karratha, Western Australia, Australia
Murujuga's red rock holds an estimated one to two million petroglyphs made over 40,000 to 50,000 years by the ancestors of the Ngarluma, Yaburara, Mardudhunera,...
Mutawintji Historic Site
Mutawintji / Broken Hill region, New South Wales, Mutawintji / Broken Hill region, New South Wales, Australia
Mutawintji holds one of New South Wales's largest collections of Aboriginal rock art, at a site that hosted regional gatherings of up to a thousand people for initiation...
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....
N'Dhala Gorge Nature Park
Ross River / Alice Springs region, Northern Territory, Ross River / Alice Springs region, Northern Territory, Australia
N'Dhala Gorge cuts through red sandstone 90km east of Alice Springs, its walls carrying roughly 6,000 engravings made by Eastern Arrernte ancestors across two broad phases...
Nanguluwurr Art Site
Jabiru / Burrungkuy region, Northern Territory, Jabiru / Burrungkuy region, Northern Territory, Australia
Nanguluwurr sits in a quiet rock shelter on the northern flank of Burrungkuy, along a route Bininj/Mungguy people have walked for millennia....
Napwerte / Ewaninga Rock Carvings Conservation Reserve
Hale / Alice Springs region, Northern Territory, Hale / Alice Springs region, Northern Territory, Australia
South of Alice Springs, a shallow claypan is bordered by low sandstone outcrops bearing one of the densest concentrations of rock engravings in the Northern Territory....
National Shrine of Our Lady of Częstochowa, Pennsylvania
Doylestown, Pennsylvania, United States
On the highest ground in Bucks County, a replica of the Black Madonna watches over 170 acres of Pennsylvania farmland....
National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows, Belleville, Illinois
Belleville, Illinois, United States
Each year, over a million people walk the grounds of America's largest outdoor Marian shrine, tracing paths between a Lourdes grotto replica and the Stations of the Cross....
National Shrine of the Cross in the Woods, Indian River, Michigan
Indian River, Michigan, United States
In the forests of northern Michigan stands a crucifix that demands contemplation: 55 feet of redwood supporting a 28-foot bronze figure of Christ weighing seven tons....
Newberry Mountains, Nevada
Laughlin, Nevada, United States
In the Mojave Desert south of Las Vegas, a granite mountain rises to meet the sky....
Norton Mound Group
Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States
On the banks of the Grand River near Grand Rapids, eleven earthen mounds rise from the landscape, remnants of a burial ground created over 1,500 years ago....
Ocmulgee Mounds, Georgia
Macon, Georgia, United States
In central Georgia, where the Ocmulgee River bends, earthen mounds rise from a landscape inhabited for 12,000 years....
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona
Ajo, Arizona, United States
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument holds some of the most significant sacred sites of the Tohono O'odham Nation outside their reservation....
Our Lady of Victory Basilica, Lackawanna, New York
City of Lackawanna, New York, United States
In Lackawanna, New York, a working-class city south of Buffalo, a basilica rises that should not exist....
Pahuk Hill, Nebraska
Cedar Bluffs, Nebraska, United States
On a wooded bluff above Nebraska's Platte River, Pahuk stands as the most sacred site in Pawnee religion—the last surviving dwelling of the nahurac, the sacred spirit...
Petroglyphs National Monument
Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
Along a 17-mile basalt escarpment on Albuquerque's western edge, approximately 24,000 petroglyphs line volcanic rock born of eruptions that brought the Earth's interior to...
Piilanihale Heiau temple, Maui
Hana, Hawaii, United States
Deep in the jungle of Maui's remote Hana coast stands Polynesia's largest temple....
Pilgrimage church of Maria Geburt, Mariastein
Mariastein, Tirol, Austria
Rising from a 14-meter cliff in the Tyrolean countryside, the 42-meter tower of Mariastein once guarded a Roman road....
Pilgrimage church of Mary, Maria Taferl
Maria Taferl, Niederösterreich, Austria
Perched 233 meters above the Danube valley in Lower Austria, the Basilica of Maria Taferl is the region's foremost Marian pilgrimage destination and the second most...
Pilot Mountain, North Carolina
Pinnacle, North Carolina, United States
Pilot Mountain rises from the North Carolina Piedmont like a sentinel from another age....
Pipestone National Monument, Minnesota
Pipestone, Minnesota, United States
For over three thousand years, Native Americans have traveled to this quarry in southwestern Minnesota to extract the red pipestone used for ceremonial pipes....
Pohaku Ho'ohanau, Kauai
Kapaa, Hawaii, United States
On Kauai's eastern shore, within the Wailua Complex of Heiaus, two weathered stones mark the threshold where royal ali'i entered the physical world....
Point Conception
Santa Barbara County, United States
Point Conception marks the most sacred boundary in Chumash cosmology: the Western Gate through which souls of the dead depart the earthly realm for Similaqsa, the heavenly...
Point Conception, California
Santa Barbara County, California, United States
Point Conception juts westward into the Pacific at the precise bend where the California coastline pivots from north-south to east-west....
Poli'ahu Heiau, Kauai
Kapaa, Hawaii, United States
On a bluff above Kauai's Wailua River, massive stone walls enclose a temple that once served the island's paramount chiefs....
Poverty Point Mounds, Louisiana
West Carroll Parish, Louisiana, United States
In northeastern Louisiana, beneath Spanish moss and summer heat, six concentric ridges arc around a central plaza while a 72-foot bird effigy rises to the west....
Puʻu o Mahuka Heiau
Pūpūkea / Haleʻiwa, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, Pūpūkea / Haleʻiwa, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, United States
Puʻu o Mahuka is the largest heiau on Oʻahu, a luakini-class temple reserved for the highest political and religious rites of the island's paramount chiefs....
Puu Loa Petroglyphs, Hawaii
Volcano, Hawaii, United States
On a 550-year-old lava flow in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, over 23,000 petroglyphs cover a volcanic dome called the Hill of Long Life....
Puuhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park, Hawaii
Honaunau, Hawaii, United States
On the black lava coast of Hawaii's Big Island, a massive stone wall marks the boundary between ordinary life and sanctuary....
Puukohola Heiau National Historic Site, Hawaii
Kawaihae, Hawaii, United States
On a windswept hill overlooking Kawaihae Bay, the massive walls of Puukohola Heiau stand as testimony to the founding moment of the Hawaiian Kingdom....
Quinkan Split Rock Art Site
Laura, Queensland, Laura, Queensland, Australia
Split Rock rises above the Peninsula Development Road south of Laura, its sandstone overhangs holding painted and engraved figures generations old....
Red Hands Cave
Glenbrook / Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Glenbrook / Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia
A sandstone shelter in the Blue Mountains carries dozens of ochre hand stencils, left by Darug and Gundungurra people across centuries and dated to roughly 500 to 1,600...
Sanctuary of Aphrodite
Kouklia, Cyprus, Cyprus
For sixteen centuries, from the 12th century BCE to the 4th century CE, the Sanctuary of Aphrodite at Palaepaphos was the most important center of Aphrodite worship in the...
Sanctuary of Chimayo, New Mexico
Santa Fe County, New Mexico, United States
El Santuario de Chimayo is the most important Catholic pilgrimage site in the United States, drawing up to 300,000 visitors annually and tens of thousands of walking...
Sedona, Arizona
Sedona, Arizona, United States
Rising from the Arizona high desert, Sedona's crimson spires and buttes have called to seekers for millennia....
Serpent Mound, Peebles, Ohio
Bratton Township, Ohio, United States
Serpent Mound rises from an Ohio hilltop—1,348 feet of earthen serpent uncoiling toward the summer solstice sunset....
Shiprock, New Mexico
Shiprock, New Mexico, United States
Rising nearly 1,600 feet above the New Mexico desert, Shiprock is not merely a geological wonder but a sacred presence at the heart of Navajo cosmology....
Showing 97-144 of 181 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 132 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.