Monks Mound at Cahokia has a base footprint roughly the same size as the Great Pyramid of Giza — with a larger perimeter (13.1 acres / 5.3 hectares). Built with non-local soil, likely transported by canoe or raft since the site sits on an alluvial flood plain. A drill bit is reportedly embedded inside.
Monks Mound: Largest pyramid by footprint, sod construction and flooding preservation
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Key facts
- Monks Mound has the largest base footprint of any pyramid in the world, larger than the Great Pyramid of Egypt
- It was built using inverted sod block construction, the same technique used in European barrows and burial mounds
- A directional drill hit a stone core in the mound in the 1870s-1910s while installing drainage - the drill bit remains embedded in the mound today
- Mound soil was intentionally non-local, brought in by canoe or raft from elsewhere since the site sits on an alluvial flood plain
- The mound was intentionally designed to be flooded for preservation - anaerobic conditions protect it better than air
- Buildings were constructed on top of the mound, including a 100 ft by 80 ft structure with cedar posts
- Most mounds in St. Louis were destroyed for railroad fill except one; hundreds were destroyed in the 1870s-1910s
Sources
Cahokia | ORIASorias.berkeley.edu
The biggest mound at Cahokia, Monks Mound, is over 100 feet tall, 775 feet wide, and 950 feet long, making its base about the same size as the Great Pyramid of ...
Cahokia Mounds · The History of Southern Illinoisscrcexhibits.omeka.net
... largest man-made mound in the United States and larger at its base than both the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. It was ...
Cahokia Mounds - Illinois Historic Preservation Divisiondnrhistoric.illinois.gov
The site is dominated by the hundred-foot-tall Monks Mound, the largest prehistoric earthen mound in the Americas, and supported several multiple-mound ...
Mound 38 – Monks Mound – Cahokia Mounds State Historic Sitecahokiamounds.org
Taking the 130-meter (426.5 foot) contour as the base elevation, the mound has a north-south dimension of 291 meters (954.7 feet) and an east- ...
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