Chaco Culture National Historic Park...
New Mexico

 Chaco Canyon depicts the highest degree of specialization of the Great Pueblo Period. In a relatively small area of only two miles by eight miles are located ten or twelve major sites. The largest site is Pueblo Bonito which has over eight hundred rooms. Each of the other sites of Chaco Canyon contain more than one hundred rooms on the ground floor. Each of the pueblos was similar in plan and was terraced from front to back, being three to five stories high. The rear of the buildings are always high blank walls. The pueblos usually surrounded three sides of the court and within the courtyard are the kivas. The floor plan of Pueblo Bonito is D-shaped, surrounding the central plaza.

Pueblo Bonito
Chettro Kettle
Casa Rinconada

Chaco Culture National Historic Park was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1987:
UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Mesa Verde National Park...
Colorado

 The people of Mesa Verde built there villages in great alcoves which are protected by overhangs of massive sandstone. These pueblos are similar to those of Chaco Canyon, but they grew by accretion rather than by a preconceived plan. Also the plan of the village was largely influenced by the shape and height of the alcove which sheltered it.

Cliff Palace and Spruce Tree House

Mesa Verde National Park was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1978:
UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Aztec Ruins National Monument...
New Mexico

 The Aztec ruin is architecturally a perfect example of a Chaco pueblo, not only in ground plan but in the most minute details of construction. The pottery, however, from the surface of the mounds is equally typical of the Mesa Verde culture. Thorough excavations have found Chaco pottery in the lower strata of the rubbish. This indicates that Aztec ruin was first built by Chaco people and later inhabited by Mesa Verde colonists.

Aztec Ruins - Great Kiva

Navajo National Monument...
Arizona

 Near Kayenta, Arizona is another group of major cliff dwellings. The largest ruins are Keet Seel with 160 ground floor rooms and Betatakin with 135. These ruins are now under the control of Navajo National Monument and have been protected since they were first found.. The ruins can only be visited with a park ranger. It requires a three hour round trip to see Betatakin and an eight mile hike to get to Keet Seel, therefore the ruins have few visitors and are in good condition. They look as if the Indians had just left them within the last few years.

Betatakin and Keet Seel

Canyon de Chelly National Monument...
Arizona

 Canyon de Chelly is near Chinle, Arizona. These ruins also can only be seen on guided tours. The major ruin in Canyon de Chelly is Antelope House.

Antelope House... (future project)

Hovenweep National Monument...
Utah

 Hovenweep National Monument can be reached form either Bluff or Blanding, Utah or from Cortez, Colorado. It is near the "Four Corners" which is the only place in the United States where four states meet at one point. Although this is a small area it has some very impressive and well preserved ruins. It also has one large square tower and many square kivas.

Photos of Hovenweep - Utah Quest!
Utah Centennial Passport by Bicycle

 Many ruins can be found throughout Utah, but most of them are small ruins in alcoves sheltered from the summer sun. Many of the canyons of southern Utah have ruins. You just need to be looking for them.

 There are small sites such as Hovenweep at Edge of the Cedars in Blanding, Anasazi Indian Village near Boulder, and the Fremont Indian village near Sevier,Utah.

Bandelier National Monument...
New Mexico

 The best known pueblos in the Rio Grande area were in the canyon of the Rito de los Frijoles. Rio is the Spanish word for river where rito is a stream. Frijoles is the word for bean so this would be "stream of the beans." The ruins of Frijoles Canyon, Bean Canyon, are now protected as Bandelier National Monument which was named in honor of Adolph F. Bandelier, a Swiss-American historian and anthropologist who worked throughout the Southwest in the 1880's. The Rito de los Frijoles converges with the Rio Grande about two miles below the main village of Tyuonyi, "Meeting Place" or "Place of Treaty" in the Keres language.

Tyuonyi and Ceremonial Cave

Desertion of the Great Pueblos...

 By the year 1300 A.D. Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, and the Navajo National Monument area had been deserted. This sudden desertion has given rise to much conjecture. Frijoles Canyon was abandoned around the time of the arrival of the Spaniards from Mexico.