To think that these men were standing atop Monks Mound at the same time as George Washington was leading the struggle against the British in the American colonies far to the east. They were still there around the time that Lewis and Clark ventured west through nearby St. Louis and St. Charles in the first years of the 19th century.
Back on the ground, we also caught glimpses of reconstructed representations of the stockade that surrounded the Cahokia city, also known as the City of the Sun. Woodhenge (not pictured) is a mile away, also rebuilt to demonstrate how the Cahokians were able to map out the exact times of the solstices.
The flora of the area included some massive nettles, some in full bloom, but on the horizon to the west another item emerged from the dirt - Missouri's Gateway Arch - beckoning us all to come back to the lands on this side of the Mississippi River.