Monks Mound: The Heart of Cahokia (Illinois)
The Newark Octagon Earthworks in Ohio are vast geometric earthworks built by the Hopewell culture (100 BCE–400 CE). Covering over 50 acres, the Octagon is precisely aligned with the moon’s 18.6-year cycle—evidence of advanced Indigenous astronomy and engineering. Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (2023), it remains one of the world’s greatest surviving sacred landscapes.
9/10/20251 min read
📜 Monks Mound: The Heart of Cahokia (Illinois)
Rising 100 feet above the floodplain of the Mississippi River, Monks Mound is the largest earthen pyramid in the Americas and the centerpiece of the ancient city of Cahokia. Covering more than 14 acres at its base—bigger than the Great Pyramid of Giza—it is a staggering achievement of Indigenous engineering, constructed entirely by hand using baskets of soil. Archaeologists estimate it contains over 22 million cubic feet of earth, layered with remarkable precision to prevent collapse despite its immense weight.
Cahokia flourished between 1050 and 1350 CE and at its peak rivaled European cities of the same period, housing an estimated 15,000–20,000 residents. Monks Mound served as the political and ceremonial nucleus of this urban center. At its summit once stood a massive wooden structure—likely a temple or ruler’s residence—symbolizing the union of cosmic order and earthly governance. Its orientation and placement within Cahokia’s broader layout reflect astronomical knowledge, aligning with other mounds and woodhenge calendars to track solstices and equinoxes.
The name “Monks Mound” comes from French Trappist monks who farmed the area in the 18th century, long after Cahokia’s decline. Yet its true legacy lies deeper: evidence that the so-called “Mound Builders” were not mythical, but the ancestors of living Native nations—Mississippian cultures whose sophistication has often been erased from mainstream history.
Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982, Cahokia and Monks Mound stand as enduring testimony to the brilliance of Indigenous civilization on Turtle Island. They remind us that North America was not an “empty wilderness” but a thriving land of architects, astronomers, and nations whose memory still lives in the soil.
References:
UNESCO World Heritage Centre, “Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site”
Timothy R. Pauketat, Cahokia: Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi (2009)
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, Illinois Historic Preservation Division