Case file · Folklore / legend
Natchez temple and sacred fire
French visitors around 1700 described the Natchez temple at their Grand Village, where an eternal fire was kept for the Great Sun, the ruler said to descend from the sun itself.
1700 CE · 31.53, -91.38 · status: account
The account
Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz, who lived among the Natchez in the 1720s, recorded their beliefs in his 1758 history of Louisiana. The Grand Village mounds are preserved as a state historic site.
The sceptical view
The accounts are by French colonists with their own agendas; the Natchez nation was scattered after war with France in 1729–31.