PHOTO: ©DAVID MUENCH/CORBIS
in villages composed of stone houses, which were located entirely above ground, and as a result of these villages, those who lived in Canyon de Chelly after AD 700 are known as the Puebloans. (This name is derived from the Spanish word pueblo, one meaning of which is “village.”)
Around 1050, the Puebloans began
building cliff dwellings in Canyon de Chelly. Ruins from the Puebloan period range from individual rock structures to extensive ruins such as those found at the sites known as Antelope House Ruin, White House Ruin, and Mummy Cave. Some of these settlements still reflect their original multistory construction and contain living and storage quarters. Puebloan culture flourished in
These dwellings in Canyon de Chelly, known as White House Ruin, are an example of the kind of dwellings the Puebloans began building around AD 1050.
attracted people to the site around 2500 BC, about the time the ancient Egyptians were building the pyramids at Giza. The surrounding land, then as now, was arid, and if the presence of water initially attracted early dwellers to the area, then the relative safety of the canyon network may have made them decide to stay. (There are only two ways to get in and out of Canyon de Chelly: one entry point is through the canyon’s mouth, which is near the town of Chinle, just west of the canyon; the other way in and out is straight up or down the walls of the canyons, which soar in some places as much as one thousand feet above the canyon floor.)
The earliest inhabitants of Canyon de Chelly only used the canyon as a seasonal campsite. Over time, these ancients began to develop agriculture, and this led to more permanent settlements, which were established by a people known as the Basket- makers. Although named for their weaving skills, the Basketmakers developed more complex agricultural practices than their predecessors, planting not only corn but squash and beans as well.
The Basketmakers first lived in structures known as pit houses, which were partially dug into the floor of the canyon. During the course of several hundred years, their settlements grew larger as their population increased. The canyon’s inhabitants began to live
Getting Started
ANYON de Chelly National Monument Visitor Center, which is located just east of Chinle, Arizona, is a great place to start a visit to Canyon de Chelly. The Visitor Center is open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every day of the year except Christmas Day and offers visitors an orientation video as well as information on commercial guided tours of the canyon floor and self-guided activities associated with the monument. For more information please visit
http://www.nps.gov/cach/index.htm or call the Visitor Center at (928) 674-5500. —JS
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Canyon de Chelly for approximately two hundred years before collapsing throughout the Southwest around 1300. Archeologists are uncertain of the cause of this collapse, but many believe that a prolonged drought may have been largely responsible. After the Puebloan people disappeared from Canyon de Chelly, ancestors of the modern Native American Hopi tribe began erecting temporary homes in the canyon and started farming the
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