Mesa Verde National Park, National park in Colorado, United States.
Mesa Verde National Park is a national park in Montezuma County, Colorado, where rock dwellings were built into the steep canyon cliffs. The settlements sit in natural cave alcoves beneath the rock ledges, formed by centuries of erosion.
The Pueblo peoples built the cliff dwellings over several centuries and abandoned them around the year 1300. The park was created in 1906 to preserve these abandoned sites and protect them for future generations.
The name means green table mountain in Spanish and describes the forested plateaus above the rock dwellings. Visitors today can still see the kivas, round rooms built into the ground that were once used for ceremonies by Pueblo communities.
Entrances to several dwellings require ladders or narrow paths along the cliffs, so good shoes and appropriate clothing are necessary. Ranger programs guide small groups through the sensitive sites, with visits lasting between one and several hours depending on the dwelling complex.
Some of the higher dwellings are only accessible by modern ladders that mimic the original access through ropes and wooden poles. The dark rooms under the rock overhangs often preserve wooden beams and plaster remnants that would not have survived in drier desert regions.
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