Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site is located on the Mississippi River across from St. Louis, Missouri. This area was first inhabited by Indians of the Woodland culture about A.D. 700. By about 900 the Cahokia site was the regional center for the Mississippian culture with satellite settlements around it. After about 400 years, the population began to decline and the site was abandoned by 1500. In the late 1600s the Cahokia Indians came to the area; it is from these later Indians that the current name is derived. However, it is the building accomplishments of the earlier Indians that make this site significant. They constructed more than 100 earthen mounds, 87 of which have been documented. It is estimated that these industrious people moved 50 million cubic feet of earth in woven baskets to create this network of mounds. Monk's Mound, for example, covers an area of 14 acres and rises in 4 terraces to a height of 100 feet. Atop this would have been a massive building another 50 feet high. As the largest prehistoric earthen construction in the Americas, Monk's Mound is a testament to the sophisticated engineering skills of these people. (Inscribed in 1982)
