EXPLORING AZTEC RUINS NATIONAL MONUMENT

In New Mexicoplenty of Pueblos which were home to various ancient communities are being preserved and are open for the public today. One can’t help but marvel at the adobe structures characteristic of such ancient architecture. 

This National Monument was named by settlers who thought the ruins were from Aztec people. They were actually the Anasazi ancestral Pueblo people the same as in Mesa Verde N.P. who built and lived on this site sometime between 1100 A.D. and 1300 A.D. What became of them is a mystery. This was the 3rd largest dwelling after 2 dwellings in Chaco Canyon National Culture Park to the south. Earl Morris, a 1930s southwestern archeologist, had his adobe home adjacent to this dig site. The house is now a small visitor center and museum with artifacts from the archeological excavations done by him.

First graders on a field trip visiting the ruins

The ruins themselves are amazing with some 400 rooms! The stones and walls are really an architectural wonder. We explored the underground storage rooms and living quarters

 

In the central plaza JR and I enter the only reconstructed kiva in the Southwest. The largest of the kivas at Aztec Ruins has been reconstructed to show it looked like with the roof intact .

The Great Kiva where ancient ceremonies were held

 Underground the restored kiva really is amazing. The windows that showed the Equinox and Solstice told how much they knew about the changing seasons and time. 
The remarkable thing about this site is that much of the structure is still intact and you can walk though many of the rooms on a self-guided tour. Considering its age, 800 years or so, the site is in a remarkable state of preservation. It was great how we were able to walk through some of the rooms to get the effect of what life inside was like years ago.  


After two hours exploring the ruins, the time had come to bid farewell to New Mexico and  head northbound thirty-one miles with the rig crossing the border into Colorado.

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