Mesa Verde National Park is located in Colorado. The park protects some of the best preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the United States. Mesa Verde is Spanish for Green Table and has more than 4,300 sites, including 600 cliff dwellings and it is the largest archaeological preserve in the U.S.
The first occupants of the Mesa Verde region, which spans from southeastern Utah to northwestern New Mexico, were nomadic Paleo-Indians who were believed to have arrived in the area around 9500 BCE.
By 750 CE the Ancestral Puebloans had developed from the their culture and they survived using a combination of hunting, gathering, and subsistence farming of crops such as corn, beans, and squash.
By the end of the 12th century, they began to construct the massive cliff dwellings for which the park is best known.
It is thought that they used astronomical observations to plan their farming and religious ceremonies. Mesa Verde's Sun Temple is thought to have been an astronomical observatory. The temple is D-shaped, and its location and orientation indicate that its builders understood the cycles of both the sun and the moon. It is aligned to the major lunar standstill, which occurs once every 18.6 years, and the sunset during the winter solstice, which can be viewed setting over the temple from a platform at the south end of Cliff Palace, across Fewkes Canyon. The Sun Temple is one of the largest exclusively ceremonial structures ever built by the Ancestral Puebloans.
An estimated 20,000 people lived in the region during the 13th century, but by the start of the 14th century the area was nearly uninhabited. There was a rapid depopulation of Mesa Verde, as "tens of thousands of people" emigrated or died from starvation due to drought. They left almost no direct evidence of their migration, but they left behind household goods, including cooking utensils, tools, and clothing, which gave archaeologists the impression that the emigration was hurried.
Explore the quirky adventures and misadventures as I take you on a journey of the United States National Parks. These journeys inspired me to explore even more about the history of the United States, the good, the bad and the ugly. These journeys are encouragements to explore, or re-examine these beautiful lands. From mountain roads with hairpin turns to stunning seaside escapes to exploring good old American history, these are amazing journeys to take in this lifetime.
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