Pueblo Bonito, 828-1126 AD Great House, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico, USA.

The fun Pueblo Alto Trail overlooks Pueblo Bonito, a monumental public building (Puebloan Great House) occupied from around 828 to 1126 AD, now preserved at Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico, USA. The huge D-shaped complex of Pueblo Bonito enclosed two plazas with dozens of ceremonial kivas, plus 600 rooms towering 4 and 5 stories above the valley floor. The functions of this building included ceremony, administration, trading, storage, hospitality, communications, astronomy, and burial, but few living quarters. Chaco Culture NHP hosts the densest and most exceptional concentration of pueblos in the American Southwest and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, located in remote northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington. From 850 AD to 1250 AD, Chaco Canyon advanced then declined as a major center of culture for the Ancient Pueblo Peoples. Chacoans quarried sandstone blocks and hauled timber from great distances, assembling fifteen major complexes that remained the largest buildings in North America until the 1800s. Climate change may have led to its abandonment, beginning with a 50-year drought starting in 1130. This panorama was stitched from 2 overlapping photos.

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Filename: 1403NM-0432-433pan_Pueblo-Bonito_Chaco-Culture-NHP.jpg
Copyright: © Tom Dempsey / PhotoSeek.com
Image Size: 9534x4500 / 9.3MB; http://www.photoseek.com/; Panorama architecture building desert history past ruins
Contained in galleries: 2014 Mar 15-Apr 09: all: southwest (UT, NM, TX), OR, CA, New Mexico: Chaco Culture National Historic Park

The fun Pueblo Alto Trail overlooks Pueblo Bonito, a monumental public building (Puebloan Great House) occupied from around 828 to 1126 AD, now preserved at Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico, USA. The huge D-shaped complex of Pueblo Bonito enclosed two plazas with dozens of ceremonial kivas, plus 600 rooms towering 4 and 5 stories above the valley floor. The functions of this building included ceremony, administration, trading, storage, hospitality, communications, astronomy, and burial, but few living quarters. Chaco Culture NHP hosts the densest and most exceptional concentration of pueblos in the American Southwest and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, located in remote northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington. From 850 AD to 1250 AD, Chaco Canyon advanced then declined as a major center of culture for the Ancient Pueblo Peoples. Chacoans quarried sandstone blocks and hauled timber from great distances, assembling fifteen major complexes that remained the largest buildings in North America until the 1800s. Climate change may have led to its abandonment, beginning with a 50-year drought starting in 1130. This panorama was stitched from 2 overlapping photos.