32 kilometres east of Atlanta rises the world's third largest monolith1, 513 metres above the plain of the Georgia Piedmont. Used as a landmark and sacred meeting place since prehistoric times, Stone Mountain, which is also the world's largest exposed piece of granite, breaks another record in having the world's largest bas-relief. This unique geological feature, and its assorted owners and exploiters, is a record of the migrations, ambitions and sheer stubbornness of the people who have lived in its shadow. Its story reaches from the time when long-vanished tribes gathered at its summit, to the day when the Reverend Martin Luther King made his most famous speech and beyond. The beginning of this tale is 3000 years in the past.
