Dan Flores

The whole country, sagebrush uplands, the canyon floor, the enclosing rim rocks, and the ruins with odd names that lie in every direction below, is a uniform tannish brown, the color of dust, or perhaps the color of abandonment. During the time of the Crusades in Europe, this spot and another on the east bank of the Mississippi River, just across from today's St.

Louis, held the two largest cities in North America, both religious centers. With a ceremonial effigy mound of lizards and serpents and a stonehenge-like circle of upright timbers planted to mark out solstices and equinoxes, the city in the eastern woods, today we call it Cahokia, probably held a fairly permanent population of 30,000 people, larger than London at that time.

Louis, held the two largest cities in North America, both religious centers. With a ceremonial effigy mound of lizards and serpents and a stonehenge-like circle of upright timbers planted to mark out solstices and equinoxes, the city in the eastern woods, today we call it Cahokia, probably held a fairly permanent population of 30,000 people, larger than London at that time.

Louis, held the two largest cities in North America, both religious centers. With a ceremonial effigy mound of lizards and serpents and a stonehenge-like circle of upright timbers planted to mark out solstices and equinoxes, the city in the eastern woods, today we call it Cahokia, probably held a fairly permanent population of 30,000 people, larger than London at that time.

I first saw Cahokia in the early 1990s with a girlfriend who had Missouri roots and insisted we visit the place. I'd seen mounds, but never anything on the scale of Monk's Mound towering up out of the American bottoms like an earthen Chichen Itzan pyramid.

I first saw Cahokia in the early 1990s with a girlfriend who had Missouri roots and insisted we visit the place. I'd seen mounds, but never anything on the scale of Monk's Mound towering up out of the American bottoms like an earthen Chichen Itzan pyramid.

I first saw Cahokia in the early 1990s with a girlfriend who had Missouri roots and insisted we visit the place. I'd seen mounds, but never anything on the scale of Monk's Mound towering up out of the American bottoms like an earthen Chichen Itzan pyramid.

After 300 years of urban life, an earthquake mostly destroyed Cahokia City, but not before its population had gone through 20,000 trees and almost all the wildlife for scores of miles around. As for the city whose ruins lay below us now, either side of 10 centuries ago, from 800 AD to 1140 AD, it was the Vatican of the American desert.

After 300 years of urban life, an earthquake mostly destroyed Cahokia City, but not before its population had gone through 20,000 trees and almost all the wildlife for scores of miles around. As for the city whose ruins lay below us now, either side of 10 centuries ago, from 800 AD to 1140 AD, it was the Vatican of the American desert.

After 300 years of urban life, an earthquake mostly destroyed Cahokia City, but not before its population had gone through 20,000 trees and almost all the wildlife for scores of miles around. As for the city whose ruins lay below us now, either side of 10 centuries ago, from 800 AD to 1140 AD, it was the Vatican of the American desert.

We call it Chaco, and it's another of our UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Chaco was the closest Native America ever got to an empire like those of the Aztecs, Mayans, or Incas. But this was not an empire of warrior armies and conquered provinces.

We call it Chaco, and it's another of our UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Chaco was the closest Native America ever got to an empire like those of the Aztecs, Mayans, or Incas. But this was not an empire of warrior armies and conquered provinces.

We call it Chaco, and it's another of our UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Chaco was the closest Native America ever got to an empire like those of the Aztecs, Mayans, or Incas. But this was not an empire of warrior armies and conquered provinces.

It was an empire of priests who organized many thousands of scattered farming hamlets across 50,000 square miles of today's Four Corners into an economic and religious network. No European principality of the age matched it.

It was an empire of priests who organized many thousands of scattered farming hamlets across 50,000 square miles of today's Four Corners into an economic and religious network. No European principality of the age matched it.

It was an empire of priests who organized many thousands of scattered farming hamlets across 50,000 square miles of today's Four Corners into an economic and religious network. No European principality of the age matched it.

What the priests promised was direct intervention with the deities who controlled rain, crops, and animals, those grand imponderables whose presence made life good and whose absence ruined it. The city of Chaco housed the priests, their families, and a resident population of thousands. It stored and distributed surplus crops.

What the priests promised was direct intervention with the deities who controlled rain, crops, and animals, those grand imponderables whose presence made life good and whose absence ruined it. The city of Chaco housed the priests, their families, and a resident population of thousands. It stored and distributed surplus crops.

What the priests promised was direct intervention with the deities who controlled rain, crops, and animals, those grand imponderables whose presence made life good and whose absence ruined it. The city of Chaco housed the priests, their families, and a resident population of thousands. It stored and distributed surplus crops.

Then at solstices and other special times of year, it hosted grand ceremonies to which the outlying residents made holy pilgrimages. At those times, Chaco gathered a population of some 40,000. Looking down now on its buildings and avenues, one suspects both the ceremonies and the nightlife must have been epic.