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History of the Natchez Indians
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Visiting the Site
Visiting Hours
Monday-Saturday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Group tours are available by appointment, and the Grand Village also offers educational programs for school and adult groups by prior arrangement. Location
In Natchez, turn off U.S. Highway 61, known as Seargent S. Prentiss Drive within the city limits, at Jefferson Davis Boulevard just south of the Natchez Regional Medical Center. Proceed on Jefferson Davis Boulevard to the entrance gate of the Grand Village.
For further information, contact:
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The 128-acre Grand Village site features a museum accredited by the American Association of Museums, a reconstructed Natchez Indian house, and three ceremonial mounds. Two of the mounds, the Great Sun's Mound and the Temple Mound, have been excavated and rebuilt to their original sizes and shapes.
A religious structure once stood atop the Temple Mound and housed bones of previous chiefs (called Suns). A sacred
![[Image of visitor center.]](newgvni_visitor.jpg)
perpetual fire was kept in the Temple's inner sanctum, symbolic of the sun, from which the royal family had descended.
A third mound, called the Abandoned Mound, has been only partially excavated. After three major archaeological excavations at the Grand Village by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, no more digging investigations are planned for the site. The unexcavated areas of the site will be preserved intact, representing a sort of "time capsule" from the Natchez Indians' past.
![[Map to GVNI.]](gvni_map.jpg)
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