### id250523416 Cahokia may have represented a spiritual crossroads > They didn't find it in Cahokia, which Pauketat believes may instead have been conceived as a place to bridge the worlds of the living and the dead. For many cultures with roots in ancient Cahokia, "water is this barrier between the world of the living and the world of the dead," Pauketat said. Sprawling across a landscape that combines solid earth with patches of swamp, Cahokia may have served as a kind of spiritual crossroads. > "It's a city built to straddle water and dry land," Pauketat said. Living residents settled in the driest spots, while burial mounds rose up in wetter places. Lidar scans of the site have revealed elevated causeways linking the "neighbourhoods" of the living and the dead, physical walkways that literally joined the realms. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fmsp2vezwh1wbz6gmvzma24w) - [[The US Lost, Ancient Megacity by Jen Rose Smith#id250523416 Cahokia may have represented a spiritual crossroads|View in Vault]]