Cahokia
Largest pre-Columbian city north of Mexico.
Cahokia, designated as the Cahokia Mounds site (11 MS 2), was a major Native American city that flourished from approximately 1050 to 1350 AD. Located directly across the Mississippi River from present-day St. Louis, the state archaeology park now sits in southwestern Illinois between East St. Louis and Collinsville. The park encompasses roughly 80 man-made mounds, though the ancient city was far larger. At its peak around 1100 AD, the settlement covered a much greater area, included about 120 earthworks of varying sizes, shapes, and functions, and supported a population estimated between 15,000 and 20,000 people. It was the largest and most influential urban center of the Mississippian culture, a society that developed advanced communities across much of the Central and Southeastern United States beginning around 1000 AD. The city’s original name is unknown; the mounds were later named after the Cahokia tribe, a historic Illiniwek people encountered by French explorers in the 17th century, though they were not necessarily descended from the earlier inhabitants. Evidence suggests multiple indigenous ethnic groups lived in the area during the city’s height. Cahokia Mounds is a National Historic Landmark, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the largest pre-Columbian earthen construction in the Americas north of Mexico. The site is open to the public and administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Division.
- Location
- Southwestern Illinois, between East St. Louis and Collinsville
- Peak area
- About 6 square miles (16 km²)
- Known for
- Largest pre-Columbian earthen construction north of Mexico
- Designation
- UNESCO World Heritage Site, National Historic Landmark
Lore & Background
The city's original name is unknown. The mounds were later named after the Cahokia tribe, a historic Illiniwek people living in the area when the first French explorers arrived in the 17th century, centuries after Cahokia was abandoned. Most likely, multiple indigenous ethnic groups settled in the area during the city's apex. Louis, East St. Louis, and Cahokia—and an ordered city grid oriented to the north. Mound construction used 55 million cubic feet of earth, transported by hand in woven baskets over decades. The city maintained trade links with communities as far away as the Great Lakes and the Gulf Coast, trading in copper, Mill Creek chert, shark teeth, and lightning whelk shells. Studies indicate large-scale immigration from regions including the lower Ohio Drainage, Lower Mississippi Valley, Upper Midwest, and south-central plains contributed to the city's rapid growth.
Reader's Guide
Cahokia represents the apex of the Mississippian culture, a complex society that flourished across the central and southeastern United States. Its planned layout, with earthen mounds, ceremonial plazas, and a woodhenge, reveals sophisticated cosmological and social organization. The site's population at its peak may have rivaled or exceeded that of contemporary London and Paris. Today, the Cahokia Mounds are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a National Historic Landmark, administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Division. The site is open to the public and was selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places in 2018. Its preservation allows ongoing archaeological research and public education about pre-Columbian urban life in North America.
Did You Know?
- The mounds were named after the Cahokia tribe, but that tribe was not necessarily descended from the original Mississippian inhabitants.
- The city maintained trade links with communities as far as the Great Lakes and the Gulf Coast.
- Cahokia's population in the 12th century may have been larger than contemporaneous London and Paris.
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