The site

Chaco Culture National Historical Park preserves a dense concentration of Ancestral Puebloan ruins in a remote canyon of northwestern New Mexico. Between 900 and 1150 CE the Chacoans quarried sandstone and hauled timber from great distances to raise fifteen major complexes, the largest buildings in North America until the nineteenth century. Features like the Sun Dagger petroglyph at Fajada Butte point to careful astronomical observation, and the UNESCO-listed park still draws visitors today.

Field notes

civilizations

Ancestral Puebloan

types

Village · Astronomical observatory · Road · Petroglyph

built

1,980 CE — 1,150 CE

occupied

850 CE — 1,250 CE

visitors

81,015 / year

country

United States

elevation

6,644 m above sea level