MONTEZUMA CASTLE

A short drive away are the ruins of the pre-Columbian Sinagua people - dwellings from approx 1100-1350 AD.
Built about 1/3 of the way up a 150 foot sandstone cliff are the ancient dwellings - still intact today.

From layers of sycamore logs, sticks, grass and mud and ladders they built their homes; Montezuma was five stories high with 65 rooms and housed over 100 people. They were dark dwellings with 'peep holes.' Above & below, reminents of multidwellings, starting from the ground up but erroded from weather.

The Sinagua lived as hunter-gatherers but also built a complex irrigation system in order to produce corn, beans and squash & pottery. In early 1400 AD they disappeared from the area & no one knows exactly why: possibly from drought, conflict with the local Yapavai, dissolving trade network or the 60% infant mortality rate.

Above are the beautiful Sycamore trees.