Brace Yourselves For A Journey Through America's Lost Medieval City

It’s a puzzle that might have enticed Indiana Jones. Let’s say there was a metropolis from ancient times hidden in North America. Where would it be?

This city was bigger than Paris or London at the time it existed, and it housed approximately 30,000 people. That’s about the size of Juneau Alaska today (if you include the surrounding boroughs). If this estimate is correct, it was the largest city in the United States until the 1780s, when the population of Philadelphia finally surpassed it. So where was this lost historic capital?

The city was called Cahokia. It hit its peak population in the year 1050, and then it was abandoned by the year 1400. We don’t even know the name of the people who lived there. The city is named after the Cahokia tribe which lived in the area, but for the record, the Cahokia tribe claimed no connection with the city; it was the European explorers who named it.

The whole area was designated as a state historical site about 40 years ago, and made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982. It is always comforting to see history receive the recognition it so richly deserves, but this ancient metropolis also has a lesson for all of us in modern times: the greatest cities of mankind are often very dependent on specific environmental circumstances, and if those circumstances change they can have a very dramatic impact on the people who live in and around them. (source: www.interestingshit.com)