Monk’s ‘Mound’ at Cahokia- is it really a buried Pyramid?
In looking up the “world’s largest pyramid”, I was surprised to see that the record-holder is not in Egypt, but rather in Mexico. It’s called Cholula, it’s near Mexico City. The reason it’s not so well-known is because it’s covered in dirt, grass and trees. They say it is several different pyramids built on top of each other like the one at Chichen Itza. (The Spanish were kind enough to build a fancy church directly on top of it.)
About 1800 miles north, we have Monk’s ‘Mound’, which miraculously avoided being torn down even as the country raced to bulldoze and flood over 90% of the ruins, mounds, and other important ancient sites in the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It sure looks a lot like Cholula…
Doubly amazing for the survival of this supposed dirt mound is Cahokia’s prime location in the St Louis Metro area, next to the Mississippi. Why would a nation so intent on ignoring and destroying less impressive sites by the thousand decide to go ahead and preserve the largest one in a park complex?
Could the reason for its survival be that they couldn’t have easily torn it down, because it is not a huge pile of step pyramid-shaped dirt but in fact an actual step pyramid, just like the others in North America, only covered with a few feet of dirt like the one at Cholula, Mexico?