Busy day today as we want to make the most of the weather while we have it. There are a few Native American Heritage sites very close to us.
First up is the Montezuma Castle Cliff Dwelling. The Sinagua built these dwellings almost 1000 years ago into the canyon taking advantage of the natural walls and ceilings and so as not to take up valuable farming land. Around that time, the Verde valley was part of a complex network of trade routes North and South and contained many villages. It is believed clans migrated North from the South and considered these villages temporary.
The visitor centre has an interesting diorama comparing local events to those in the 'Old World' around the same time. Remarkably, the Spanish visited the valley in the late 1500's but did not stay. No Europeans would come back for another 220 years! When they did, they mistook the now deserted native american dwellings as Aztec ruins, hence the name Montezuma.
We also learn that the name Sinagua (Spanish for 'Without Water') was given by archaeologists, we may never know what they called themselves.
The 'village' is 5 stories of about 20 rooms of around 13 square meters almost 30 meters up! Built on the South face, the rooms would have stayed cool during the day.
The neighbours built a 3 story dwelling at ground level.
Janine and Niels hug a Sycamore tree
A few minutes up the road is the Montezuma Well. Water falling on a nearby mountain range seeps into the cracks and holes in the limestone and sandstone until it hits a layer of granite. A basalt dike by the well forces the groundwater up. This process takes about 10 years. Even today the flow continues at a rate of about 2 olympic size swimming pools per day.
The well is an almost perfect circle and has a unique ecosystem with five plants and animals that have not been found anywhere else on earth!
Niels and Lucy are working on their booklet to earn another Rangers badge.
There is a path down to the water level, and again dwellings in the wall.
Their is no native rock art, but we do see some graffiti from 1888.
Like a bowl with a crack, the well has a natural drain and the Native Americans crafted cunning irrigation ditches for their farmlands.
The last stop for the day is Tuzigoot National Monument. This village pueblo was built on the top of a small hill. It was 2 stories high and had 87 rooms. The most important villagers would live on the top floor. Each family occupied a single room and access was through the roof. There were no windows.
This is what it may have looked like.
Many other villages like this existed in the Verde valley and they were connected by line of sight.
We learn more about how the Native Americans lived, farmed, made art, jewelry, baskets & cloth and even mined.
Today: 90km - 2h17m
Total: 22,952km - 450h7m
