Next time you're in Saint Louis...

You might want to stop by Cohokia Mounds, and check out the "Woodhenge".


The largest mound at the site is called Monks mound, which dates from 1000-1200AD, and is the largest prehistoric earthen construction in the "New World" (unless of course you were already here, then it would be the largest in the "Known World".) The mound is 100 ft high, and covers 14 acres, and is about 1/2 mile from Woodhenge. If you step just left of where the picture was taken, on the Equinoxes, the sun would rise in line with the center pole and the pole with two bands, which places the sun rising at the notch between the highest and second highest part of the mound. The 48 posts are evenly spaced, and two other posts mark the rise of the sun at each solstice.




It is supposedly the largest archeological site (2200 acres) , but i havent compared it with the Chaco Canyon for xize. BUt it is a world heritage site...the last picture is a diorama of the entire site...the woodhenge is to the left of the larger mound, about half way to the edge of the picture...


let me know if you want the original pictures, which are a little better detailed...(1600 x 1200 pixels or so....)


Jim and Cathy
http://thegeekandhippie.blogspot.com/