A four-sided earthen platform the size of a pyramid base, rising about 100 ft out of the ground, with a concrete staircase appearing to lead up into the sky – like a real life stairway to heaven. Surrounded by the ghost of a city that was once larger than almost anything north of Mexico, Cahokia was the centre of Mississippian culture. Construction of Monks Mound began around 900–950 CE; by about 1100 a large wooden building stood on the summit. The whole site held tens of thousands of people, a planned Grand Plaza, wooden sun calendar, and dozens of other mounds. It was largely abandoned by the 1300s–1400s. Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage historic site, eight miles from downtown St. Louis. The sheer scale of the mound with it’s lone staircase leading to open air, can give a sense of being in a dream, appearing designed and rendered rather than ruined.