kateoplis: Cahokia: America’s Forgotten City I’m standing at the center of what was once
kateoplis:Cahokia: America’s Forgotten CityI’m standing at the center of what was once the greatest civilization between the deserts of Mexico and the North American Arctic—America’s first city and arguably American Indians’ finest achievement—and I just can’t get past the four-lane gash that cuts through this historic site. Instead of imagining the thousands of people who once teemed on the grand plaza here, I keep returning to the fact that Cahokia Mounds in Illinois is one of only eight cultural World Heritage sites in the United States, and it’s got a billboard for Joe’s Carpet King smack in the middle of it.Cahokia Mounds may not be aesthetically pristine, but at 4,000 acres (2,200 of which are preserved as a state historic site), it is the largest archaeological site in the United States, and it has changed our picture of what Indian life was like on this continent before Europeans arrived. If you want to understand Cahokia, the first thing you’ve got to do is climb the 156 steps to the top of Monks Mound. With a footprint of 14 acres, it is larger at its base than the Great Pyramid of Khufu, Egypt’s largest, and more than twice that of the Roman Coliseum. I actually had to read about Cahokia during my very first semester of college (Fall 2007). It’s a really interesting area - check this out! -- source link
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