It’s about a 1 ½ hour drive to Chaco Culture National Historical Park from Bloomfield, the
last 10 miles on what is a poorly maintained, which is subject to flash floods,
but it is well worth it. Be sure to do one of the ranger guided walks here, it
explains so much more than you can learn on your own. We forgot to buy a
guidebook before we toured the ruins, a big mistake. The signage doesn't explain much while the tour book explains things in detail: why are these building here, what did it mean?
The best theory is that
the great houses of Chaco Canyon were a religious and cultural center for the
Chacoan Culture. The people created massive, multistory buildings here and
several wide roads that spoked out from here to other settlements in the
Southwest. While the houses here are massive, the surrounding area could not
have supported a large population with food, so the permanent population was
small, but many people came here for ceremonies in the buildings and great
kivas. The masonry in these buildings is exquisite with rough stone on the
inside and a flat veneer style masonry on the outside.
 |
Great Kiva |
Why here? Apparently the Fajada Butte in the canyon had
significance. There is evidence of an ancient man-made earth ramp that came up
to the butte, steps in the rock, and numerous petroglyphs and astronomical
items. Our ranger made an analogy to Mecca – it was the religious center for
historical reasons, not that it was easy to live there.
 |
Fajada Butte with partial ramp on right |
No comments:
Post a Comment