Collinsville, IL – Here’s something you didn’t learn in school: the Midwest has a pyramid. And no, it’s not a nickname or tourist gimmick—it’s a 100-foot-tall, hand-built monument that once ruled a city of tens of thousands along the Mississippi River.
On this Indigenous People’s Day, there’s no better time to rediscover Cahokia Mounds, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in southern Illinois that preserves the largest ancient earthwork in North America. Known as Monks Mound, this massive pyramid of layered soil and clay was built between 900 and 1150 CE by the Mississippian culture, long before Europeans ever arrived in the region.
🌄 Why This Place Matters
Cahokia wasn’t a small village—it was the largest city north of Mexico 1,000 years ago, with a population that rivaled medieval London. Archaeologists believe it was the capital of a vast Indigenous network that stretched along the Mississippi River from Wisconsin to Louisiana.
At its heart stood Monks Mound, a four-terraced pyramid spanning over 14 acres. Its base is nearly identical in size to Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza, though it’s built entirely of hand-carried earth. The top once held a great wooden temple or palace, likely home to Cahokia’s spiritual and political leaders…