Cahokia

What is Cahokia?

The site is an Illinois state park set between Collinsville and East St. Louis, facing modern St. Louis across the Mississippi River. The park covers about 3.5 square miles and holds roughly 80 human-made mounds, though the ancient city was bigger than the park.

At its height, about 1100, the settlement spread across some 6 square miles, with around 120 earthworks of many shapes, sizes and uses. Its population is estimated at 15,000 to 20,000. Archaeologists rank it as the largest and most complex site of its kind anywhere north of Mexico's great pre-Columbian cities.

History of Cahokia

Cahokia was the biggest and most important urban center of the Mississippian culture, which built complex societies across much of the central and southeastern United States starting around 1000. The city was later abandoned.

No one knows what its builders called it. The name comes from the Cahokia, an Illiniwek people who lived in the area when French explorers arrived in the 1600s, centuries after the city emptied. They were not necessarily descendants of the mound builders. Besides its World Heritage and National Historic Landmark status, the site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Visiting Cahokia: tips

Give it at least a couple of hours to walk the grounds. The Cahokia Mounds Interpretive Center is about 0.3 miles away. The site has parking, wheelchair access and is suited to children. Two related stops are close: Mound 72 about 0.2 miles away and Mound 34 about 0.6 miles away. Horseshoe Lake State Park is about 2.7 miles off.