| So on Saturday morning we had a leisurely (half price) breakfast
at the casino before heading out seven miles east to Cahokia Mounds. This
is the largest prehistoric mound site north of Mexico. These doors to the
interpretive centre were incredibly heavy with bas relief sculptures on
both sides. The photos under emphasize their impressive nature. |  |
 | The mounds are a
World Heritage site and cover about 6 square miles. This is a model of the
largest one. It is estimated that about 20,000 people lived in the city of
which this was the centre point between 1100AD and 1400AD. This makes it a
larger centre of population than London at that time. It had largely been
abandoned by 1400AD but they have no real idea why - malnutrition?
disease? It took until 1830 before a North American city (Philadelphia)
reached this size again. |
| As ever archaeologists can determine quite a lot about daily
life. There are life sized replicas of what they think the habitations
looked like. There were also exhibits of what they made and what they ate.
As with many quality American museums the technology of the presentations
was impressive and the range of learning activities and information for
kids was very good. |  |
 | I always enjoy
small scale models and there was a set of scenes covering the seasons
which impressed me. This was the winter scene. The trees in particular
were very realistic. |
| We borrowed an audio visual tour guide (tape recorder) and went
on a tour of some of the mounds on the site. This is the largest mound as
it is today, the same as in the model above. It is called Monks Mound
because some French Trappist monks built a refuge on the top and lived
there for a while in the late 1800s. |  |
Mid afternoon we set off west towards Wichita to try to cover some of the 450
miles to our next planned stop before nightfall. I think we have decided that
300 miles a day is a practical maximum. Interstate 70 was horrendous for traffic
and bad driving. At one point it had five lanes each way with an additional four
lane highway on each side (ie 18 lanes) We decided to turn off and take route 54
down to Lake Ozark to spend the night. |