Day 18 (D-43) Mesa Verde: A quick armchair visit
Day 18 of our "computer traveling" will start the 6th day (Sunday, June 23rd) of our trip in the American Southwest.
Here are a few pictures of the cliff dwellings we'll be seeing there.
Just look.Or look and read.
You choose.
Cliff Palace, at about 150 rooms, is the largest cliff dwelling in the park. Amazing! 90% of Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings have 10 rooms or less. Tree-ring dating indicates that construction and refurbishing of Cliff Palace was continuous approximately from 1190 CE through 1260 CE. Cliff Palace was abandoned by 1300, then rediscovered in 1888 by Richard Wetherill and Charlie Mason while they were out looking for stray cattle.
Spruce Tree House. Spruce Tree House is the third largest (130 rooms and 8 kivas) and best preserved cliff dwelling in the park, constructed between A.D. 1211 and 1278 by the ancestors of the Pueblo peoples of the Southwest. It is thought to have been home for about 60 to 80 people. This one cannot be visited because of rocks falling. A natural sandstone arch is present in the Spruce Tree House alcove, just above the cliff dwelling. Too dangerous. Closed to the public since October 2015.
Balcony House. With 40 rooms, Balcony House is considered a medium size cliff dwelling.
“Balcony House, with its well-preserved rooms, kivas, and plazas, stands as a tribute to those who built and occupied the site in the thirteenth century, the ancestors of the Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New Mexico. Balcony House is also a tribute to the men who excavated and stabilized the site in the early part of the twentieth century…” (Kathleen Fiero, Balcony House: A History of a Cliff Dwelling, Copyright 1999 by Mesa Verde Museum Association.)
For the official National Parks map of Mesa Verde, click here:
You'll need to zoom in to see it better.
And you can look here:
My best,
Jane
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--refurbish = to make a building (here, the cliff dwellings) look new again
--Spruce Tree = épicia, said to be growing in front of the dwelling when it was discovered in 1888
--CE = Current Era or Common Era
--A.D. = Anno Domini "in the year of the lord"
--stray cattle = having left the herd (troupeau), these cows are lost and cowboys go out looking for them to bring them back
--kiva = a chamber, built wholly or partly underground, used by male Pueblo Indians for religious rites.
--tribute = something (such as material evidence or a formal attestation) that indicate the worth (valeur), virtue or effectiveness of the one in question
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