What Cool Historical Sites Have You Been To???
 

Being that i am a serious history buff, i thought it would be interesting to hear about the travels of you Planeteers.

With such a diverse cross-section of people here, there should be a very wide variety of great places.

Civil War battlefields???

The Great Pyramids of Egypt???

Maybe the wonders of Greece or Rome???

South American ruins of the Aztecs & Maya etc.???

My best 2 would have to be the Custer National Battlefield & the Old State Capitol here in Springfield.

On the drive up to live in Montana we went way out of the way to stop at the Custer site, i as a 9 year old boy only had a passing, 9 year olds knowledge of the event yet i was totally blown away by the vibe of that place. Even as a young boy i could feel the "heaviness" in the air on that barren, desolate plain. You almost felt as if it just happened. I have never been to a place that affected me more deeply. I have read a lot of books on it since. The on-site museum is killer as well.

At the Capitol building, it was very interesting to stand in the very spot that Lincoln stood, to look down & think that someone as important as Abe stood right where you are. There are actually a ton of places like that here in Springfield, Lincolns New Salem outside of town in Petersburg, Ill is a great place & still looks just like it did in the old days. They have festivals where actors dress up in period costume & give demonstrations on everything from how to make homemade butter to how to fish using old time technology. If you ever come to this area i recommend it. A very cool place for a romantic date.

So anyway, thats the best i've got, where have you been???

Astrodome

Site of the last Chiefs playoff victory.

I don't like historical sites, Mr. scott free. I prefer new ones. Less dust.

However, I think a lot of guys here have been to Mr. Redrum_69's Old Cooter Museum.

FAX

I've been to a buttload of places. Noteably though, I live 30 minutes from Gettysburg, PA.

I've traveled the world. I've been to archeology digs at the Dead Sea, saw the pyramids, Rome, Athens, Stoneage, Jerusalem Old city(lived there for 3 months), Venice, Paris etc etc

The "coolest"? Jerusalem hands down. The most beautiful city in the world.

OUCH!! :(

Mt. Rushmore was really cool when I took the family in the Summer of 2000.

I really liked goin to the Mayan ruins

Your travels are well documented & i must say i'm quite jealous. I absolutely have to see Israel before i die.

Last summer, my family visited the Northfield bank that Jesse James and his gang tried to rob. The tour guide did a very nice job of describing the raid, the gunfight, the subsequent capture of the Younger brothers and the escape of the James brothers, and the subsequent history of each of the survivors. I criticized him for putting a Yankee spin on everything (instead of recognizing that James was a southern Robin Hood :p) and he offered to let me give the next tour, but I politely declined. We both laughed. It was a simple little museum, but it was interesting, particularly because we've taken our kids to see the James family home in Kearney, MO and the site of the first daylight bank robbery (which was performed by the James gang) in Liberty, MO. We also went to a cave in SE Missouri where the James gang holed up and escaped from a posse once too. We need to head up to St. Joe sometime and see what kind of James history they have up there.

Everyone please feel free to be descriptive, what you thought about it, how it made you feel etc.

You sir have opened a can since I'm a big history dork.

I've been to Liberty Plaza in Philly, which includes Freedom Hall and the Liberty Bell. I've hiked through some jungle to see Mayan ruins in Belize. I've seen the view from Lookout Mountain and paid my respects to the grave of Bill Cody. I've climbed Ayres Rock in Australia (it holds great significance to the Aborigines). I’ve walked the trail of the first convicts to settle Sydney and I’ve toured the USS Intrepid in NYC. I’ve seen the Anasazi cliff ruins in New Mexico and walked the streets of St. Augustine FL (founded in 1530 and the oldest permanent city in N. America).

If things ever settle down I’m going to check out Greece and Italy.

i've got a cannonball i found in pilot knob, mo. in the early '70s. there was a fort and a civil war battle fought there. now it's a historic site.

sec

Gettysburg is probably the coolest place I have ever visited. We did the battlefield tour as part of my senior trip. Completely awe inspiring and humbling at the same time.

Thats cool, my old job used to take me to Hannibal, Mo once a week. In certain parts of town its like stepping back in time, if it werent for cars on the street you'd swear Injun Joe was right around the corner.