World's Largest Ten Commandments

Murphy, North Carolina, United States

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Fields of the Wood is a biblical park of more than 200 acres near Murphy, North Carolina, operated by the Church of God of Prophecy and managed by its Heritage Ministries. Its Ten Commandments display on the mountainside is promoted as the world's largest; Visit NC says it spans about 300 feet, with letters five feet tall and four feet wide. Church history says A.J. Tomlinson prayed on the mountain on 13 June 1903. Visit NC says visitors can climb 321 steps beside the commandments to the summit; other reports give different counts, so treat the number as approximate. A 2018 WLOS report described it as free to enter, with donation bins on site.

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World's Largest Ten Commandments

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Approximate location · 35.153° N, 84.010° W

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Fields of the Wood, near Murphy in the North Carolina mountains, is a church-run biblical park whose centrepiece is a Ten Commandments display laid out across a mountainside.

Visit NC promotes the display as the world's largest, says it spans about 300 feet across the mountainside, and gives each letter as five feet tall and four feet wide. The park is owned by the Church of God of Prophecy, according to Our State, and managed by its Heritage Ministries, whose history page describes more than two hundred acres.

The church ties the place to its early history. It says A.J. Tomlinson prayed on the mountain on 13 June 1903, a date a University of North Carolina library blog repeats. The church says the first temporary marker went up on 15 November 1940 and permanent construction began in 1943, the year Tomlinson died. Many of the markers were designed by L.S. Rhodes, whose largest designs are the Ten Commandments and the New Testament markers. Other sources give later dates: Our State says the first marker went up in 1941, and Visit NC says the church established the park in 1945.

Our State's March 2024 article also described a 30-by-50-foot concrete Bible at the top of Ten Commandment Mountain, billed as the world's largest New Testament, 29 monuments on Prayer Mountain, an 80-foot altar, and replicas of Golgotha and Jesus's tomb. Visit NC says visitors can climb 321 steps alongside the commandments to the summit, while a 2018 WLOS report put the 321 steps on Prayer Mountain. The same report described the park as free to enter, with donation bins on site.

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