This app lets you see what Cahokia Mounds looked like 1,000 years ago

COLLINSVILLE — Visitors to Cahokia Mounds have always needed to rely on their imagination to picture what life looked like 1,000 years ago.

“There’s really nothing to look at outside of the interpretive center, except for the mounds that are left behind,” said site superintendent Lori Belknap.

But a new augmented reality app now allows visitors to visualize the scale of the ancient city built by the Mississippians, which had a population between 10,000 and 20,000 at its height.

Before becoming superintendent in 2019, Belknap was executive director for the Cahokia Mounds Museum Society, which supports educational programs at the site. In this capacity, Belknap said she wanted a way for guests to envision what the 2,200-acre site really looked like and decided augmented reality was the best option.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/culture-history/2022-01-12/this-app-lets-you-see-what-cahokia-mounds-looked-like-1-000-years-ago