Get Group Reservation Form - Cahokia Mounds

Though rich in timber, deer and fish from the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, the land was flood-prone – so why build there? ing to Emerson, the most likely explanation is that Cahokia was planned and constructed to double as a “pilgrimage city”, where all Mississippians could gather for religious events.

The earthen mounds were used for burials and the largest ones, such as Monks Mound, were also stages for great religious ceremonies with temples on their platforms and houses of the chiefs. One of Cahokia's greatest influences was religious. Cahokia was built and organized around particular cosmological worldviews.

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site preserves the central section of the largest prehistoric Native American city north of Mexico. Occupied from 700 to 1400, the city grew to cover 4,000 acres, with a population of between ten and twenty thousand at its peak around 1100.

There were about 120 mounds on the pre-Columbian landscape at Cahokia Mounds, about 80 remain today. Mississippian mounds fall into three categories, flat-topped pyramids called temple or platform mounds; conical mounds; and linear ridgetop mounds which are unique to the Cahokia area.

But just 200 years later, the once-thriving civilization had all but vanished, abandoning its patchwork collection of monumental earthworks for still-unknown reasons. Theories regarding Cahokia's demise run the gamut from environmental disasters to political clashes with neighboring groups.

Guided Tours In addition to a World-Class Interpretive Center, Cahokia Mounds offers 2,200 acres of the original site, 800 of which are accessible to the public. No trip is complete without exploring the site, climbing the 100 ft. Monks Mound and experiencing the reconstructed ancient sun calendar, Woodhenge.