When I explore ruins like these I enjoy the beautiful scenery but my thoughts focus on the people that once made these places their home. Arizona will celebrate 100 years of statehood this year, but this land was home to other civilizations for more than eleven thousand years.
Tuzigoot is a hilltop pueblo that became a maze of rectilinear rooms that grew larger and larger as the Sinagua population expanded for centuries. Much like todays' suburban sprawl, no sustainable long term plan was ever envisioned by its creators. This civilization disappeared in 1400 AD, and nobody knows why.
Montezuma's Castle, the first high rise apartment building ever built in America.
Tuzigoot is a hilltop pueblo that became a maze of rectilinear rooms that grew larger and larger as the Sinagua population expanded for centuries. Much like todays' suburban sprawl, no sustainable long term plan was ever envisioned by its creators. This civilization disappeared in 1400 AD, and nobody knows why.
Montezuma's Castle, the first high rise apartment building ever built in America.
This 1000 year old irrigation canal still functions today as well as it did then.
We climbed those steps.
More cliff-dwellers' homes.
Been to Tuzigoot but missed Montezuma's Castle. The west is such a great place with all it's fascinating history.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. Whenever we've been able to explore these ancient dwellings, I too try to envision what they looked like and the day to day activity. I always get the impression people must have been much smaller then.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing those pictures.
Kelly