The ancient Native American village of
Mesa Verde, Colorado
, features numerous ruins built by ancient Pueblo people known as the Anasazi. The Anasazi made this stone dwelling, Cliff Palace, their home in the 1200s.
Who built Cliff Palace?
Construction and Use
Cliff dwellings were built by
the Ancestral Puebloans
, who were ancestors of the Pueblo Native American tribe. The cliff dwellings were built from 1200–75. The people had lived on flat ground around Mesa Verde. To keep their community safe, they started to build homes in the cliffs.
Can you see Cliff Palace from the road?
The overlook is a very short walk from the parking lot down a paved path. It gives excellent views of the ruins and should not be missed.
You can also see Cliff Palace from across the canyon while on the Mesa Top Loop Road
.
Where are the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde?
Mesa Verde Long House is located on
Wetherill Mesa in the western portion of Mesa Verde National Park
and is the second largest dwelling behind Cliff Palace. The Mesa Verde Long House was excavated between 1959 and 1961 as part of the Wetherill Mesa Archeological Project.
Who found Mesa Verde?
In 1889, while searching for stray cattle in southwestern Colorado, rancher
Richard Wetherill and his four younger brothers
stumbled across ancient ruins in the cliffs of a high plateau known as Mesa Verde.
What is Cliff Palace used for?
It is thought that Cliff Palace was
a social, administrative site with high ceremonial usage
. Many visitors look at the size of the doorways in Cliff Palace and other cliff dwellings and wonder about the size of the people who once lived here.
Why is Cliff Palace closed?
The Cliff Palace Loop is currently closed due to
road construction
.
How old is the Cliff Palace?
Crafted of sandstone, wooden beams and mortar, Mesa Verde Cliff Palace has been remarkably well preserved from the elements for the past
700 years
. A visit to Mesa Verde Cliff Palace is included in the 700 Years Tour.
Why is Cliff Palace closed Mesa Verde?
Cliff dwelling tours will resume at Mesa Verde National Park after being suspended in 2020
because of the pandemic
. Cliff dwelling tours will resume at Mesa Verde National Park after being suspended in 2020 because of the pandemic.
What happened to the people of Cliff Palace?
Final collapse. The cliff settlements were not to last. Another population collapse occurred, this time at the end of the 13th century, leaving sites like Cliff Palace abandoned and falling into ruin.
The people appear to have migrated south again to sites in Arizona and New Mexico
.
Can you go inside Mesa Verde?
Only two cliff dwellings are open for self-guided tours
. These fill up quickly, so if you want to go inside the amazing Cliff Palace, you must nab a spot on a guided tour early.
Is Cliff Palace Overlook open?
Open 8:00 a.m. to sunset
, Cliff Palace Overook is located along the Cliff Palace Loop Road which is open late-spring to December 1 (or after first significant snowfall). Cliff Palace can also be seen from the Sun Point View and Sun Temple stops along the Mesa Top Loop Road which is open all year.
What Indians built Mesa Verde?
Mesa Verde National Park (Spanish for green table) was established to preserve archaeological sites built by the
Ancestral Puebloans
who inhabited Mesa Verde for more than 700 years (550 A.D. to 1300 A.D.).
How many cliff dwellings are in Colorado?
With more than 5,000 sites, including
600 cliff dwellings
, it is the largest archaeological preserve in the United States.
Why was the Mesa Verde abandoned?
People hunted out the big game and deforested the mesa. In 1276 a 23-year drought began.
The Ancestral Puebloans abandoned the site by 1300
. Cowboys found the cliff dwellings in the 1880s and subsequent explorers plundered them—until much of the mesa was turned into a national park in 1906.
Why is it called Mesa Verde?
Mesa Verde is
Spanish for “green table”
(green = verde; table = mesa). When Spanish explorers first came to the Southwest, they saw many tall landforms with flat tops and steep sides. The flat tops reminded the explorers of tables. So they gave them the Spanish name for “table,” which is mesa.
When was Mesa Verde occupied?
Ancestral Puebloans occupied the Mesa Verde region from
about 450 C.E. to 1300 C.E.
The inhabited region encompassed a far larger geographic area than is defined now by the national park, and included other residential sites like Hovenweep National Monument and Yellow Jacket Pueblo.
Are the pueblo still alive?
Today, however,
more than 60,000 Pueblo people live in 32 Pueblo communities in New Mexico and Arizona and one pueblo in Texas
. As farmers, educators, artists, business people, and civic leaders, Pueblo people contribute not only to their home communities but to broader American society as a whole.
When was the Cliff Palace built?
The construction of Cliff Palace was a herculean effort, most of which occurred in the 20 years
between AD 1260–1280
. The basic raw materials —pieces of Cliff House Sandstone and the mortar ingredients—were abun- dant and available.
What is the Cliff Palace made of?
Cliff Palace was constructed primarily out of
sandstone, mortar and wooden beams
. The sandstone was shaped using harder stones, and a mortar of soil, water and ash was used to hold everything together. “Chinking” stones were placed within the mortar to fill gaps and provide stability.
Is Mesa Verde open right now?
Mesa Verde National Park is
open daily, year round
. Facilities and Cliff Dwellings hours and operations schedule are subject to change. For the most current information, call Park headquarters at 970-529-4465 or log onto the Mesa Verde National Park Service.
Are the cliff dwellings open at Mesa Verde?
Mesa Verde Closures
The Cliff Palace Loop is currently closed due to road construction
. The Chapin Mesa Museum is currently closed for renovations.
How busy is Mesa Verde?
With
close to 600,000 visitors annually
, Mesa Verde can seem packed at times. But park officials point out that the numbers are much lower just before and after the summer rush. June 15 to August 15 is the high summer visitation period.
