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Mesa Verde, meaning green table in Spanish, offers a glimpse into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who lived in the area for over 700 years, from AD 600 to 1300. The Mesa Verde National Park, located in the southwest of the United States, is home to nearly 5,000 known archaeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These cliff dwellings are some of the most notable and best-preserved in the country.
One of the most fascinating features of Mesa Verde is the number of well-preserved cliff dwellings. These houses were built in alcoves or rock overhangs along the canyon walls. The structures were mostly constructed using hard sandstone, which was held together and plastered with adobe mortar. While the constructions had many similarities, they were generally unique in form due to the individual topography of the different alcoves along the canyon walls.
In contrast to earlier constructions and villages on top of the mesas, the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde reflected a region-wide trend towards the aggregation of growing regional populations into close, highly defensible quarters during the 13th century.
The area around Mesa Verde offers some great views to photograph, but the primary photographic subject is the old ruins. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most notable cliff dwellings that we may visit on our photo tours.
Balcony House is set on a high ledge facing east. Its 45 rooms and 2 kivas would have been cold during the winter. Visitors enter by climbing a 32-foot ladder and crawling through a 12-foot tunnel. The exit, a series of toe-holds in a cleft of the cliff, was believed to be the only entry and exit route for the cliff dwellers, which made the small village easy to defend and secure. Visitors can enter Balcony House through ranger-guided tours.
This multi-storied ruin, located in the largest alcove in the center of the Great Mesa, is the best-known cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde. It was south- and southwest-facing, providing greater warmth from the sun in the winter. Dating back more than 700 years, the dwelling is constructed of sandstone, wooden beams, and mortar. Many of the rooms were brightly painted. Cliff Palace was home to approximately 125 people but was likely an important part of a larger community of sixty nearby pueblos, which housed a combined six hundred or more people. With 23 kivas and 150 rooms, Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde National Park.
Located on the Wetherill Mesa, Long House is the second-largest Mesa Verdean village, where approximately 150 people lived. The cliff dwelling was built c. 1200 and was occupied until 1280. The location was excavated from 1959 through 1961, as part of the Wetherhill Mesa Archaeological Project. The cliff dwelling features 150 rooms, a kiva, a tower, and a central plaza. Its rooms are not clustered like typical cliff dwellings. Stones were used without shaping for fit and stability. Two overhead ledges contain storage space for grain. A spring is accessible within several hundred feet, and seeps are located in the rear of the village.
Originally identified as a reservoir to support the mesa top with water for drinking and irrigation, Far view reservoir became a National Civil Engineering Historic Landmark on September 26,
