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Mesa Verde, Spanish for "green table", offers an unparalleled
opportunity to see and experience a unique cultural and physical landscape.
The culture represented at Mesa Verde reflects more than 700 years of history.
From approximately A.D. 600 through A.D. 1300 people lived and flourished
in communities throughout the area, eventually building elaborate stone
villages in the sheltered alcoves of the canyon walls. Today most people
call these sheltered villages "cliff dwellings". The cliff dwellings
represent the last 75 to 100 years of occupation at Mesa Verde. In the late
1200s within the span of one or two generations, they left their homes and
moved away.
The archeological sites found in Mesa Verde are some of the most notable
and best preserved in the United States. Mesa Verde National Park offers
visitors a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people.
Scientists study the ancient dwellings of Mesa Verde, in part, by making
comparisons between the Ancestral Pueblo people and their contemporary indigenous
descendants who still live in the Southwest today. Twenty-four Native American
tribes in the southwest have an ancestral affiliation with the sites at
Mesa Verde.
To fully enjoy Mesa Verde National Park, plan to spend a day or two exploring
its world-class archeological sites as well as its beautiful landscape.
The entrance to the park is 9 miles east of Cortez and 35 miles west of
Durango in Southwestern Colorado on US Highway 160. |
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