The Second Opening: Why Did the City Fall?

Around the year 1200 CE, something began to change at Cahokia.

The population that had filled the city at its height began to thin.

The construction of new mounds slowed.

The evidence of intensive occupation in the residential zones becomes less dense in the archaeological record.

By around 1350 CE, the area that had been home to tens of thousands of people was essentially empty.

The city had been abandoned.