An Ancient Community
Aztec Ruins, built and used over a 200-year period, is the largest ancestral Pueblo community in the Animas River valley. Excavation of the West Ruin in the early 1900’s uncovered thousands of well-preserved artifacts that provide glimpses into the lives of the ancestral Pueblo people. A remarkable variety of food remains, stone and wood tools, cotton and feather clothing, fiber sandals and mats, pottery, and jewelry made of turquoise, obsidian, and shell reveal much about their use of local resources and trade with others. About 1300, the ancestral Pueblo people left the region, migrating southeast to join existing communities along the Rio Grande, south to the Zuni area, or west to join the Hopi villages in Arizona. Aztec Ruins National Monument connects people of the past with people and traditions of today. Many Southwestern American Indians today maintain deep spiritual ties with this ancestral site through oral tradition, prayer, and ceremony. The site offers visitors opportunities to learn about these remarkable people and their descendants and to forge connections with the monument’s timeless landscape and stories.
(Click on photos to enlarge.)
This is a National Monument run by the National Park Service
It was a beautiful day to respectfully observe the Aztec Ruins
This is the large "Great House"
This is a Kiva. It’s a large circular chamber used for ceremonies.
