Girlhood and the Downfall of Cahokia

As part of a trio of sites — the East St. Louis mounds, St. Louis mounds, and Collinsville mounds (known collectively as “Greater Cahokia”) — Cahokia was the center of political, religious, and social life for emergent Mississippian culture. At its height, Cahokia was comprised of more than 200 mounds, of which 120 were built within a 5-square-mile zone of Collinsville that referenced the four sacred directions (north, south, east, and west) and were arranged around vast open plazas.<a href="https://historymuse.medium.com/girlhood-and-the-downfall-of-cahokia-4cc76290830f#_edn1" rel="noopener ugc nofollow">[i]</a> The greatest of these was Monks Mound, the largest Pre-Columbian earthwork in North America, which towers 100 feet high and has a base wider than the Great Pyramid of Giza. Interspersed between the mounds were suburban-like neighborhoods, often arranged around courtyards with a central marker post, thatched-roof houses, a circular sweat lodge, and one or two other buildings. Further out from the mounds, extending nearly 30 miles, family farmsteads and hamlets helped supply the crops needed to sustain Cahokia’s population. Of this once vast city, only 80 mounds remain, including one of the most mysterious mounds of all: Mound 72. <a href="https://historymuse.medium.com/girlhood-and-the-downfall-of-cahokia-4cc76290830f">Visit Now</a>