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<< Our Photo Pages >> Cahokia - Monk's Mound - Pyramid / Mastaba in United States in Great Lakes Midwest

Submitted by bat400 on Sunday, 25 September 2011  Page Views: 11285

Multi-periodSite Name: Cahokia - Monk's Mound
Country: United States Region: Great Lakes Midwest Type: Pyramid / Mastaba
Nearest Town: East St. Louis  Nearest Village: Collinsville, IL
Latitude: 38.660500N  Longitude: 90.0623W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 5

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bat400 visited on 10th Jul 2007 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 3

davidmorgan MelissaBWrite have visited here

Cahokia - Monk's Mound
Cahokia - Monk's Mound submitted by bat400 : Monk's Mound taken from the SE. bat 400. 23 June 2007. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Pyramid in Madison Co., Illinois.
The largest structure in the Cahokia Mound group is "Monk's Mound" a pyramidal earthwork with multiple flat terraces. Two terraces are thought to have had wooden buildings. The base of the structure is larger than the base of the Great pyramid of Giza.

There are four separate terraces. The lowest, largest level appears to have had a small building in the south west corner. (Interestingly, the slight mounded elevation seen in this corner would have aligned with equinox sunrise from the Woodhenge structure.

The mound was thought to have been built entirely of earth, but In 1998 an excavation (drilling) at Monk's Mound hit rock. The original St. Louis Post Dispatch news article speculated a smaller stone pyramid buried within the body of the earthen mound. Later excavation and survey revealed no such structure, but did show that rock and gravel had been used during building, possibly to stablize the steeply inclined surface.

The name comes from French Trappists who built a chapel in the area and planted fruit trees on the terraces of Monk's Mound. (This mound does not seem to have been the site of their chapel.)
You can climb to the top of Monk's Mound for a view of the site and the skyline of the modern metropolis of St. Louis, across the Mississippi River.
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Cahokia - Monk's Mound
Cahokia - Monk's Mound submitted by bat400 : Cahokia - Monk's Mound. The largest earthen mound in North America. The base is larger than that of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Photo by bat400, June 2007. (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Cahokia - Monk's Mound
Cahokia - Monk's Mound submitted by bat400 : The view to the West from Monk's Mound. St. Louis Missouri appears on the far horizon - the Arch is to the left. Mound 42 is to the right. bat400. 23 June 2007. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Cahokia - Monk's Mound
Cahokia - Monk's Mound submitted by AKFisher : In the 1800s illustrations of mounds were often exaggerated & distorted. This is an 1887 depiction of Monk's Mound showing how it got its name. A monk once did live on the summit. Image courtesy Dr Greg Little, author of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Indian Mounds & Earthworks (2016).  (Vote or comment on this photo)

Cahokia - Monk's Mound
Cahokia - Monk's Mound submitted by AKFisher : Depiction of Monk's Mound at Cahokia, Illinois (1909). The mound is 100 ft tall and its base covers about 14 acres, an acre larger than the Great Pyramid at Giza. Photo courtesy Dr Greg Little, author of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Indian Mounds & Earthworks (2016). (Vote or comment on this photo)

Cahokia - Monk's Mound
Cahokia - Monk's Mound submitted by davidmorgan : Monk's Mound under a looming sky. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Cahokia - Monk's Mound
Cahokia - Monk's Mound submitted by durhamnature : View from the south-east, with terrace on left, from "Cahokia Mounds" via archive.org

Cahokia - Monk's Mound
Cahokia - Monk's Mound submitted by durhamnature : Reconstruction, from "Cahokia Mounds" via archive.org

Cahokia - Monk's Mound
Cahokia - Monk's Mound submitted by durhamnature : View from the north, from "Cahokia Mounds" via archive.org

Cahokia - Monk's Mound
Cahokia - Monk's Mound submitted by durhamnature : Old photo from "Mound Builders..." via archive.org

Cahokia - Monk's Mound
Cahokia - Monk's Mound submitted by durhamnature : Old drawing from "Mound Builders..." via archive.org

Cahokia - Monk's Mound
Cahokia - Monk's Mound submitted by symbionspacesuit : centered in the plaza

Cahokia - Monk's Mound
Cahokia - Monk's Mound submitted by bat400 : Cahokia - Monk's Mound. This was taken from the platform of the first tier, looking up to the top level. Photo by bat400, June 2007.

Cahokia - Monk's Mound
Cahokia - Monk's Mound submitted by bat400 : The twin mounds of Fox and Roundtop can be seen over the south west "lip" on the lower platform of Monk's Mound. At one time there was a small building here. bat400. 23 June 2007.

Cahokia - Monk's Mound
Cahokia - Monk's Mound submitted by bat400 : The view from Monk's Mound toward the west. Mound 42 appears just beyond the closest road. Beyond it is Mound 44, and then the reconstruction of Woodhenge. East St. Louis is not a highrise city, so very dimmly on the horizon you might be able to make out St. Louis (once called "Mound City") across the Mississippi River. bat400. 23 June 2007.

Cahokia - Monk's Mound
Cahokia - Monk's Mound submitted by bat400 : Monk's Mound. Photo is taken from the NE. bat400. 23 June 2007,

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 236m E 90° Cahokia - Mound 36 Artificial Mound
 323m ENE 70° Cahokia - Stockade* Misc. Earthwork
 388m SE 126° Cahokia* Ancient Village or Settlement
 411m SW 224° Cahokia - Mound 48 Artificial Mound
 442m NNE 32° Cahokia - Mound 5.* Artificial Mound
 474m ENE 78° Cahokia - Ramey Group* Ancient Village or Settlement
 516m SSE 156° Cahokia - Mound 55* Artificial Mound
 535m ESE 103° Cahokia - Mounds 30 and 31 Artificial Mound
 561m W 264° Cahokia - Mound 42* Artificial Mound
 676m SSE 157° Cahokia - Museum* Museum
 682m S 185° Cahokia - Mound 60* Artificial Mound
 699m SSW 195° Cahokia - Mound 59* Artificial Mound
 967m W 267° Cahokia - Mound 44* Artificial Mound
 1.0km N 354° Cahokia - Kunnemann Group* Ancient Temple
 1.0km S 187° Cahokia - Mound 72* Artificial Mound
 1.1km W 267° Cahokia - Woodhenge* Timber Circle
 1.8km S 183° Cahokia - Mound 66 Artificial Mound
 2.4km W 272° Cahokia - Powell Mound Artificial Mound
 2.5km WSW 259° Fingerhut tract* Ancient Village or Settlement
 4.9km N 353° Horseshoe Lake Mound* Artificial Mound
 5.0km WSW 248° Sam Chucalo Mound* Artificial Mound
 8.1km WSW 255° East Saint Louis Mound Center* Ancient Village or Settlement
 10.9km W 260° Big Mound (St Louis)* Artificial Mound
 17.5km WSW 237° Sugarloaf Mound, Missouri* Artificial Mound
 24.4km E 98° Emerald Mound, Illinois* Artificial Mound
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"Cahokia - Monk's Mound" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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September 30, 2011 Lecture on Cahokia's Monk's Mound by bat400 on Sunday, 25 September 2011
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“Monumentality at Cahokia”
Friday, September 30, Noon
Dr. Timothy Schilling, Post Doctoral Fellow at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures/Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology, Indiana University Bloomington
Cahokia was the largest pre-Columbian settlement in ancient North America. Located near the confluence of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois Rivers, west of modern day St. Louis, the site is best known for having over 100 earthen mounds. Of these, Monks Mound stands out above the rest. Monks Mound is the largest single ancient construction North of the Valley of Mexico. Traditionally, researchers speculate that the site grew around the mound through time in a slow developmental trajectory. Recent work suggests the mound was built much more quickly and in a more planned fashion. These results indicate that traditional interpretations of moundbuilding and how researchers understanding its meaning in ancient contexts should be re-evaluated. Moreover, the Monks Mound case begs a reassessment of monumental construction done by small-scale societies worldwide.

This talk is part of the Brown Bag Archaeology Lecture Series at the Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology on the Indiana University campus, Bloomington, Indiana. The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, please call (812) 855-6873.
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Street view Cahokia - Monk's Mound, Illinois by bat400 on Friday, 12 March 2010
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Last one today, I promise. (This is addictive...)

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