Mesa Verde National Park

Mesa Verde National Park was established in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt to preserve the cultural and historic significance of the site. For thousands of years people have traveled through and built thriving communities on the mesas and cliffs. Today, Mesa Verde National Park protects the rich cultural history of 27 Pueblo and Tribes and offers a window into the past. Mesa Verde is a sacred place and in addition to being a national park, it is also a World Heritage Site and International Dark Sky Park.

For 700 years (approximately 600-1300 AD), the Ancestral Pueblo people thrived on the high mesas of the region. They were farmers growing beans, squash, and maze as well as raising turkeys. The location was perfect for non-irrigation farming. The high altitude, above 7,000 feet, provided abundant precipitation for their crops. The plateau itself is not flat but actually tilts to the south maximizing exposure to the sun and lengthening the growing season. Strong winds from the south blew fertile top soil to the mesas.

The earliest communities in the region were actually built on top of the mesa. Pithouse (600 AD) along the Mesa Top Loop is one of the earliest examples in the national park. The Ancestral Pueblo people took advantage of the earth’s natural insulation by building pit houses which were semi-subterranean homes. The main chamber of the home was approximately 2 feet below ground and then a roof was constructed with branches and brush. There was even an antechamber for storage of surplus food for the winter months. An opening in the roof provided entry via a ladder as well as exit for firepit smoke.

Architectural innovations continued to evolve which is displayed at the Pithouse & Early Pueblos site which dates between 700-950 AD. The original village at this site was still composed of pit houses, but later generations began to experiment with single-stone-wide masonry walls that they used to construct above-ground room blocks. This innovation allowed for bigger rooms and larger villages. Even as they began building above ground, they continued to build pithouse-like structures. These structures were dug deeper into the ground and began to resemble what is known as a kiva.

Kivas are multi-purpose underground rooms that remain central to Pueblo community life even today. A kiva is a large, circular pit with a central firepit and a ledge for bench seating. They have vertical wooden beams that support a roof that cover the pit with a ladder providing access to the room via a hole in the roof. They had a chimney to provide proper air flow for the fire and also vaults in the floor which may have been covered with animal skins to create a foot drum. Kivas were the focal point of Ancestral Pueblo life. They were a gathering place for religious ceremonies, celebrations with dancing, a work area, and social hub. I would liken a kiva to a modern family room.

The Mesa Top Site (900-1100 AD) represents three villages built one on top of another. As the population increased and building techniques advanced, the Ancestral Pueblo people would rebuild alongside or on top of an existing site. The third village at this site, build around 1075 CE, represents major innovation with its use of double-stone, rubble-core masonry – two outer stone walls with soil and rock fill between them. This sturdy construction allowed for the building of large multi-story room blocks and towers. This last village featured three circular towers which may have been used as signaling stations, astronomical observatories, watchtowers, or ceremonial structures. As their population increased, the Ancestral Pueblo people also began to impose more advanced agricultural techniques like stone terraces to prevent water runoff and soil erosion.

Far View was a thriving village on the top of the mesa around 1000 AD. At the center of this community was Far View House which was one of the largest and most advanced structures of the Ancestral Pueblo people. Fair View House had a ground floor of 40 rooms and second floor with 30 rooms! Specialized architectural features tell archeologists that it was a Great House – the central structure of the community. This thriving community also featured the impressive Pipe Shrine House and a nearby reservoir which was constructed to irrigate crops.

Between 1100-1200 AD, one of the last mesa-top pueblos to be built at Mesa Verde was the Sun Point Pueblo. This 30-room village had a large kiva at its center that was connected to a tower by a tunnel. Archeologists have not been able to find wood at the site to properly date it and this is most likely because the wood was repurposed for other construction projects.

At its peak between 1200-1300 AD the Mesa Verde region was home to about 40,000 people, more than who live in the area today. Around that time for reasons unknown, the Ancestral Pueblo people left the top of the mesas and began building cliff dwellings in the canyon alcoves and ledges. The alcoves provided protection from precipitation and shade during the hot summers. Sandstone is very porous and many of the alcoves had a convenient water source from seep springs. Surprisingly, protection was not the primary motivation for cliff dwellings because the Ancestral Pueblo were peaceful farmers and had few enemies: the Spaniards had not arrived in North America yet.

From the Sun Point Overlook along the Mesa Top Loop, the canyon alcoves and ledges from this vantage point were occupied by over 30 cliff dwellings. Over 700 years ago, sounds of singing, laughing, barking dogs, and crying babies echoed off these canyon walls. This was a thriving farming community at the height of the Ancestral Pueblo civilization. From the Sun Point Overlook, I was able to see numerous cliff dwellings which I will share below.

A few of the larger cliff dwellings are available for the public to tour under the supervision of a national park ranger. Available to tour by reservation are Spruce Tree House, Cliff Palace, and Balcony House. I was fortunately enough to take the tour of Cliff Palace during my two-day visit and it was an amazing experience. To access Cliff Palace, guests have to descend down stone steps about 100 feet and up an 8-foot ladder. The exit from the tour is up three ten-foot ladders. Unfortunately, my scheduled tour of Balcony House was canceled due to thunderstorms in the area.

Cliff Palace is North America’s largest cliff dwelling, with 150 rooms and 21 kivas. Because of the large kiva to room ratio, some scholars believe Cliff Palace was an important gathering place, perhaps an administration center for the many Ancestral Pueblo villages. In the northern corner of the cliff dwelling there was a natural spring and an upper ledge was utilized as storage for surplus crops. One interesting architectural note is that cliff dwellings didn’t have doors, just windows. This was probably for safety to prevent young children, or sleep-walking adults, from falling. As you climb the ladders to exit Cliff Palace, you can still see hand and foot holes in the cliffside that ancient people would have used to access the village. Cliff Palace, like the other cliff dwellings, was abandoned around 1300 AD most likely due to a severe decade-long drought. The Ancestral Pueblo people spread south, eventually settling in their present-day communities from the Hopi Mesas in Arizona to the Rio Grande River Valley.

One mesa-top building constructed during the cliff dwelling period was the Sun Temple (1250 AD). The D-shaped structure has four-foot-thick walls, a gutter system, and archeologists have excavated 24 rooms and three circular structures. Sun Temple was likely a communal building that played an important role in the Cliff Palace community. Some experts have suggested that Sun Temple may have been used for astronomical observations like denoting the solstices for the structure was unroofed. No one knows for sure its purpose, maybe it was just never finished, but it is a very impressive structure.  

Built at least six centuries after the pit houses, Square Tower House (1200-1300 AD) represents the pinnacle of Ancestral Pueblo building techniques. This cliff dwelling features the tallest structure at the Mesa Verde site, a four-story, 27-foot-tall square tower. Archeologists have found painted murals and pecked rock art throughout Square Tower House suggesting the importance of art within the thriving community.

Mesa Verde National Park was an incredible experience and gave me new appreciation for the Ancestral Pueblo people who thrived here long before European Americans.