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.

Mesa Verde is Spanish for "green table", referring to the flat-topped, forested mesa that rises more than 600 metres above the surrounding land. The name was given by Spanish speakers; the builders are called Ancestral Puebloans, while "Anasazi", the name spread by the Navajo, is a Navajo term. Kivas, the round ceremonial rooms, were retained from earlier pit houses and entered by ladder through the roof.

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.

Cliff Palace was built mainly in about twenty years from around 1190, using sandstone blocks bound with mortar of earth, water and ash, with wooden beams over doorways and ceilings. It holds about 150 rooms and 23 kivas, yet probably housed no more than 100 people.