Left. View of the Newark Great Circle embankment and inner ditch from atop the northwestern section. This open, less-wooded section of the circle affords a good view of the Great Circles monumental scale. The Great Circle is actually an ellipse measuring from 1163 to 1189 feet in width.

Below. A section of the northeast portion of the circle. Everywhere around the circle, large trees enhance the sites grandeur.

Fortunately E. G. Squier and E. H. Davis (1847), Cyrus Thomas (1894), and others undertook original surveys and explorations prior to the destruction of many sites. The Squier and Davis survey results, published by the Smithsonian Institution, include detailed illustrations of the sites. About Newark Earthworks, Squier and Davis stated, "These works are so complicated, that it is impossible to give anything like a comprehensive description of them." The Newark array of circles, a square, an octagon, parallel embankments and circular and elliptical mounds was the most diverse, extensive and complex of earthen monument sites.

With summer vegetation, the views across the full breadth of the Great Circle are fleeting few. From the northern arcs embankment, the group of four co-joined mounds at the center of the circle (Eagle Mound) are discernible as small rises of earth.