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Cahokia Mounds
Cahokia is the site of an ancient Native American city (650-1400 CE) near Collinsville, Illinois in the American Bottom floodplain, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri. The 2,200-acre (8.9 km2) site includes numerous man-made earthen mounds. Cahokia Mounds is the largest archaeological site related to the Mississippian culture.
Cahokia is the only prehistoric Indian city north of Mexico. Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site was designated a National Historic Landmark on July 19, 1964, listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966, and designated a World Heritage Site in 1982.
Cahokia was first settled around 650 CE during the Late Woodland period. Mound building did not begin until about 1050 CE at the beginning of the Mississippian cultural period.
The name "Cahokia" also refers to an unrelated clan of Illiniwek people living in the area when the first French explorers arrived in the 1600s, long after Cahokia was abandoned.
Monk's Mound is the central focus of this great ceremonial center. A massive structure with four terraces, it is the largest man-made earthen mound in North America.
"Woodhenge," a circle of posts used to make astronomical sightings, stood to the west of Monk's Mound. The name is taken from Stonehenge, as this structure marked solstices, equinoxes and other astronomical cycles.
Cahokia was the most important center for the peoples known today as Mississippians. Their settlements ranged across what is now the Midwest, Eastern, and Southeastern United States.
At the high point of its development, Cahokia was the largest urban center north of the great Mesoamerican cities in Mexico.
Archaeologists estimate the city's population at between 8,000 and 40,000 at its peak, with more people living in outlying farming villages that supplied the main urban center.
Woodhenge, a circle of posts used to make astronomical sightings, stood to the west of Monk's Mound. Archaeologists discovered Woodhenge during excavation of the site and noted that the placement of posts marked solstices and equinoxes, like its namesake, Stonehenge.
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