Mesa Verde National Park
The ancient dwellings of the Puebloans, carved into the cliffs of majestic mesas
Category Eccentric Homes, Incredible Ruins
Known for the dwellings of the people who archaeologists once called the "Anasazi," (a derisive Navajo term meaning "ancient enemy") Mesa Verde National Park in Montezuma County, Colorado, is home to some of the world's most beautiful sandstone and adobe structures.
The twelfth and thirteenth-century rectangular homes -- and circular, subterranean religious structures ("kivas") -- of the Pueblo peoples include the famous "Cliff Palace," a maze of twenty three ceremonial kivas and dozens of rooms. These pink, yellow, and red-plastered dwellings are shut behind windowless walls, under a great overhanging cliff. They are architectonic, squeezing dark rooms together to make an easily defensible fort that uses the cliffs' natural curves as a guide.
We don't know much today about the people who built the storybook towers of Mesa Verde (which means "green tablelands"). There appear to be two different styles and sizes of kiva, so there may have been two distinct periods of building, guided by different groups of religious elites. The total effect is stunning, and to people accustomed to separated homes and cities laid out on a grid, under an open sky, quite surprising.
For some reason, these dwellings were inhabited for only a century or so before some sort of disaster struck. Likely theories include a "mega-drought" that made life in the arid mesa-lands unsustainable. Rather than disappearing into thin air, it's now that thought that the early Puebloan peoples migrated south, into Arizona and New Mexico, where they continued to refine their building practices and where their descendants live today.
Unfortunately, much of these amazing abandoned structures have been looted or destroyed by curio-seekers and vandals. What's left owes much of its existence to a family of forward-thinking ranchers called the Wetherills, who had a good relationship with local Native Americans and gave outsiders responsible tours. President Teddy Roosevelt tried to protect the Park lands in 1906. In addition, photographer Ansel Adams documented the ruins in the 1940s, producing a series of powerful black-and-white images of the towers and walls.
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- Hours 8:00 a.m.-sunset. For times when the Park is open, see: http://www.nps.gov/meve/planyourvisit/hours.htm
- Address Colorado, United States
- Cost Fee required (price not listed). Tour tickets can ONLY be purchased in person at the Far View Visitor Center. (From Oct. 17 to Nov. 6, tickets are available at the Chapin Museum.)
Plane The nearest airports are Cortez, Colorado, Durango, Colorado, and Farmington, New Mexico. Car Mesa Verde National Park is in Southwestern Colorado. The Mesa Verde Headquarters is a one-hour drive from Cortez, Colorado, heading east on Highway 160 to the park turnoff, and a 1.5 hour drive from Durango, Colorado, heading west on Highway 160 to the park turnoff. Public Transportation The closest bus terminal is located in Durango, Colorado. Car rental is needed to get from the bus terminal to the park. The entrance to Mesa Verde is 35 miles from Durango. Getting Around A vehicle is needed to see Mesa Verde. The first view of a cliff dwelling is 21 miles (approximately 45 minutes) past the entrance station along a steep, narrow, winding road.
Comments
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Anonymous
February 2, 2010
I've been here & it's wonderful! Hair-raising drive up the side of the mesa to get there, but worth the effort.
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