A Hike through the past

Cahokia Mounds Park, right across the river from St. Louis, over in Illinois. 

This is the site of a mound city built by the Mississippian peoples from 1050-1250 AD. There are at least 72 large mounds of earth on which were built temples, burial sites, and the largest one for the chief which measures 14 acres at its base and rises 30.5 meters. This mound has steps leading up to the plateau at the top where you can see for miles.We all made it to the top. The chief could observe people coming down river and also the whole of his "kingdom" beneath him. 

The park is very beautiful and very silent. It was full of butterflies. The day shone with wonderful clouds and blue skies. 

We found a stockade built by the tribe as well as an ingenious circle of wooden posts where it was thought that they could calculate the solstices. The sun rose over the Chief's mound each day and the circle was strategically located opposite this mound to measure the sun that was "given each morning by the chief" to the people.

 

Fun fact: St. Louis's nickname Mound City was given to it because these Indians set up a satellite city there and at one time. St. Louis was full of these same mounds, but now of course they are gone. It was an interesting hike. It smelled, looked, and felt like a Midwest summer day, which is, for a Midwesterner, a wonderful and comforting experience.