Many Americans are shocked to learn that their country is home to an ancient pyramid that stands as tall as 100 feet. Mysteriously, the fascinating history of Cahokia and its Monks Mound pyramid aren’t covered in most schools. Be that as it may, Cahokia was the largest pre-Colombian urban settlement north of the Rio Grande. And at its peak, it even had a bigger population than London at the time.
Cahokia started developing in the 10th century, and it became the most important settlement to the Mississippian culture from around the year 1050. Over the course of a couple centuries, Cahokia’s population would grow to as large as 40,000 people. And throughout their city, which took up an area of around 6 square miles (16 km2), the Cahokians built hundreds of mounds.
While the Cahokians left behind no written records, we know that the city was a thriving center of trade. It’s located just outside of modern-day St. Louis, while various materials found at the site come from as far as the Gulf Coast and the Great Lakes.
But for some reason, by around the year 1400, the city was mysteriously abandoned. There’s still a lot we don’t know about the ancient metropolis, but the city’s layout reveals a highly advanced knowledge of astronomy and geometry.
Today, despite its relative obscurity, getting to the Cahokia mounds is surprisingly easy. The site is a relatively short drive from St. Louis, while a tour around the mounds shouldn’t take more than half a day.
Who Were the Mississippians?
The Mississippian culture lasted from around 1000 – 1500 AD. And remnants of their cities can be found throughout nearly a dozen states across the eastern half of the US.
The culture is named as such because it mostly developed around the Mississippi River Valley. But no other settlements come close to the size or importance of Cahokia, located in present-day southwest Illinois.
There are various Mississippian cultures and subgroups, with the culture who built Cahokia being categorized as ‘Middle Mississippian.’ Nevertheless, Cahokia was a relatively diverse metropolis, where people from around North America gathered for work and trade.
The Mississippians relied heavily on agriculture, with their most important crop being corn. Like Mesoamerican cultures to the south, the Mississippians also placed a heavy emphasis on rain and rain-related deities.
Another thing the Mississippians liked to do was built mounds, though they were hardly innovators of the tradition. In fact, Native Americans had been building mounds for at least 1,000 years before the Mississippians came along. Yet in the past, areas comprising of numerous mounds were mostly used for rites and rituals, but weren’t habituated.
The Mississippians, in contrast, built entire cities around their mounds, with large pyramidal structures playing a vital role in their urban landscape.
Monks Mound
As mentioned above, Cahokia’s central and most prominent pyramid is known as Monks Mound. But, as we’ll go over below, that’s definitely not what the ancient Cahokians would’ve called it!
The largest earthwork in the Americas, Monks Mound covers an area of over 14 acres. And archaeologists estimate that it consists of over 22 million cubic feet of earth. Nobody knows for sure how it was built, but some suspect it was all done by hand, with locals carrying countless baskets of dirt from around the area.
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