What Happened to the Lost Civilization Buried in Illinois

Bright Side

A long time ago, there was a massive civilization in Illinois, way before Europeans ever arrived. It was called Cahokia, and at its peak, around 20,000 people lived there—making it bigger than London at the time! They built giant mounds, some as tall as a ten-story building, and had a complex society with trade, religion, and even sports. But then, something mysterious happened, and by the 1400s, the city was abandoned. Some say it was climate change, others think war or disease played a role, but no one knows for sure. Today, the mounds are still there, keeping the secrets of this lost civilization buried beneath them. 🏺🌿  Credit: Cahokia Mounds: By Thank You (24 Millions ) views - https://flic.kr/p/RqaCtp, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=144794523 CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/: Mohenjodaro: By Saqib Qayyum, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31519717 Mohenjo-daro: By Saqib Qayyum, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31520522 Moenjodaro 12: By Smn121, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35300157 well outside city Moenjodaro: By Quratulain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35769471 Mohenjo-daro museum relics12: By Saqib Qayyum, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31520373 Machu Picchu 2: By Martin St-Amant (S23678), https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8123818 CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0: Well in Utica 08: By Kritzolina, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80365444 Moenjodaro: By Nadzir81, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62928837 Great Bath: By Aakashaliraza, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51424888 Sceau Indus taureau Guimet: By Zunkir, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92666896 Sceau Indus éléphant Guimet: By Zunkir, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92666835 Machu Picchu: By Diego Delso, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43170413 Machu Picchu 58: By Diego Delso, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43170399 CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0: Mounds: By Joe Passe - https://flic.kr/p/M7owMN, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=125171668 Indus cylinder seal: By ALFGRN - https://flic.kr/p/2eboayG, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77587655 CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0: Fossil Qesem teeth: By Prof. Israel Hershkovitz, Tel Aviv University, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41060785 The Great Bath: By Wellcome Images - https://wellcomecollection.org/works/jepcfstc, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35869089 Roman villa of Waldling: Dominik Hagmann/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/opEGF Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music by Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me

Transcript

00:00There's this interesting ancient site near St. Louis, Missouri that a lot of people don't

00:06know about.

00:07It's called Cahokia, and it used to be a huge city with up to 20,000 people living

00:13there back in the 11th century.

00:17It's full of these massive earthen mounds that were built by hand, and the biggest one

00:22is still there today, at the Cahokia Mound State Historic Site.

00:28Even though we don't know everything about this civilization, researchers have been able

00:32to piece together some information from the remains they've found.

00:37For starters, they found some pretty old teeth at this site.

00:42After studying their appearance and structure, scientists suggest that a lot of different

00:47indigenous groups lived there.

00:49About a third of them came from other areas in the middle of the continent, which they

00:54figured out by studying the different levels of various substances in the teeth.

00:59And get this, the way the mounds are arranged shows that this was actually a planned out

01:06city, not just a bunch of villages grouped together.

01:09The rulers lived on top of the mounds, while everyone else lived in other structures.

01:15It's amazing to think that they were doing things like farming, hunting, logging, pottery,

01:22and weaving, all within this one giant city.

01:27Right in the middle of Cahokia, there was this giant mound that was about 100 feet tall.

01:33And around it, there was this huge wooden fence.

01:38Inside the fence was the city center, which had a big open space called a plaza.

01:44Archaeologists think that the plaza was designed to represent the four cardinal directions

01:48of the world.

01:50It was like the people who built it wanted to create a place that was in harmony with

01:54the universe.

01:56The center of the city was where they held ceremonies and events, and it was such a big

02:00deal that people from outside Cahokia would come to be a part of them too.

02:07What became of this city?

02:09Hard to tell.

02:10Some people think that the reason it fell apart is that they cut down too many trees

02:15and the land got all messed up.

02:17Other scientists believe that's not true, because the soil was still in pretty good

02:22shape after the city was gone.

02:24The Europeans were not even around at that time, so they couldn't have influenced the

02:29downfall of Cahokia either.

02:31There's also one theory that suggests there were fights with other communities that caused

02:36the city to collapse.

02:39These days, there are over 65 preserved mounds, and you can even climb the steps of the tallest

02:46one.

02:47The best part is that local authorities are thinking of making it a national park, so

02:52you should totally plan to visit before it gets too crowded.

02:58Mohenjo-daro is another lost ancient city that's still surrounded by mystery.

03:04Located in modern-day Pakistan, it was a city that flourished during the Bronze Age, and

03:10it was extremely advanced for its time.

03:13It had things like water systems and fancy architecture that other cities didn't have

03:18back then.

03:19Despite these features, it's not as well-known as other ancient cities like those in Egypt

03:25or Mesopotamia.

03:27What's even weirder is that at some point, the city was abandoned, and no one knows why.

03:36Archaeologists found the city in 1911, but it took a while for them to realize how important

03:41it was.

03:42Eventually, they uncovered a lot of really interesting things about the city, like its

03:47advanced sanitation system.

03:50Excavations uncovered over 700 wells, as well as private baths and a large communal bath.

03:58Remarkably, even private homes had toilets, and waste was efficiently disposed of through

04:04a city-wide sewage system.

04:07They also had a lot of trade connections and made some really beautiful objects, like pottery,

04:13jewelry, and figurines that were sold all over the region.

04:18Despite its amazing culture and knowledge, scientists have yet to figure out why the

04:23city was abandoned.

04:25Some people think changes in the nearby river might have had something to do with it.

04:30The writings that the people of Mohenjo-Daro left behind are still a complex code, even

04:35for the most skilled specialists, making it even harder to piece together their history.

04:43Have you heard of the lost city of Kolmanskop?

04:47It used to be a small settlement in the Namib Desert.

04:51Legend has it that it got its name from a man named Kolman who got stuck in the local

04:56dunes and was never seen again.

04:59But that's not the interesting part.

05:02In 1908, a railway worker found a shiny stone and showed it to the chief railway foreman,

05:08who turned out to be a hobby mineralogist.

05:11They discovered it was a diamond, and soon, Kolmanskop became the richest town in Africa

05:17and one of the richest places in the world.

05:20It had luxurious stone houses, a school, a hospital, and even an ice factory to produce

05:26ice for fridges.

05:28The hospital had the first x-ray machine in southern Africa, which was supposedly used

05:33to check if workers were illegally swallowing diamonds.

05:38Its popularity began to decline in the late 1920s when another diamond-rich location was

05:43discovered nearby.

05:45Most of the inhabitants soon began to flee the city in search of a better life, leaving

05:50the buildings abandoned.

05:52In 1938, all machinery was taken south and the town was left to the desert.

05:58The last inhabitant left Kolmanskop between 1956 and 1960.

06:04The hot climate and low humidity have preserved the structures over time, and tourists can

06:09now visit this desert ghost town.

06:13You've surely heard about this next ancient city, Machu Picchu.

06:18It's this incredible ancient location in Peru.

06:22It stretches across a huge piece of land in the Andes Mountains and sits high above sea

06:26level.

06:28It's even considered one of the wonders of the modern world.

06:32But here's the thing, scientists aren't exactly sure what it was used for.

06:38It could have supported up to 750 people, but there aren't a lot of human clues left

06:43behind.

06:45Some people think it was more of a spiritual or ceremonial place, while others believe

06:50it may have been like a fancy spa retreat for the nobles.

06:55The extensive terraces might mean it was used for crop testing or as a trading hub.

07:01And there's even a theory that it was used as a prison because they found a cell-like

07:06area too.

07:09It's amazing that even today, archaeologists and historians are still puzzled about how

07:15it was built.

07:17Did you know that they probably didn't even use wheels for transportation?

07:21And those massive granite rocks were somehow pushed up the steep Andean Mountains, even

07:26though most of them weighed a lot.

07:30Some historians think that hundreds of people worked together to push each rock up the peak.

07:37The huge stones at Machu Picchu are also so close together that you can't see any cracks

07:43between them.

07:44It's pretty cool because it also makes the area safe during earthquakes, which is important

07:50since Peru is a shaky country.

07:53But how did the stones stay put during all those quakes?

07:56They actually move a little bit, but then they go back to their original spot, almost

08:01like they're dancing.

08:04Some people think wet wooden wedges were used to keep them in place, but that doesn't really

08:09add up considering how big the structures are.

08:14Locals back then also seemed to have built Machu Picchu without using any pack animals

08:19or iron tools.

08:21They had to sculpt and put everything together using mostly their hands.

08:26Plus, the citadel is built on a fault, so they had to move a bunch of stone and earth

08:32to make it flat.

08:35Scientists also think that the real construction is actually underground because of the deep

08:40foundations and drainage system.

08:42In fact, there's a hidden water system that was just recently discovered using 3D scanning.

08:49They didn't even use mortar to put the granite blocks together.

08:53They were so precise that you can't even fit a sheet of paper between them.

08:58One theory suggests that people that lived there used stone tools made of a harder material

09:04than the stone they were cutting.

09:07That's it for today!

09:08So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your

09:12friends.

09:13Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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