Let me start by explaining that these pictures will never give you a sense of this place. You MUST experience it for yourself. The steep cliff facings down which you must scale to even access these ancient (built & in use circa 1200-1300 AD) is breathtaking and terrifying to normal people, but to those of us with a fear of heights... Let me assure you that I got down to these complexes and back up only through the force of prayer and the support of God. I prayed before each tour that God would just give me the strength I needed to keep moving and experience a place so phenominal and so significant that I have been wanting to see it ever since I first studied it in Archaeology classes in college. It was beyond terrifying and beyond exhilarating to be standing in a place of such ingenuity, mystery and historical significance. So, that said, Let's start a tour of Mesa Verde!
The Mesa was occupied by the builders of these incredible structures from around 550 BC until the late 1200's or early 1300's. Later people who moved into this area would not live in the cliff dwellings as they thought they were haunted by the spirits of the ancients ones... the Anasazi!
These structures were built by stone-aged people whose average age was 25 to 30 for women and 35 to 40 for men. The mortality rate for childeren was around 50%. The men averaged about 5'5" and the women were about 5' in height. they lived in family groups in matrilineal clans. They didn't take the scary, but safer paths that we follow today, they literally carved hand and toe holds into the face of the rock and climbed up and down that way... carrying with them anything they needed such as food, timber and stones for building the homes, and anything else they might need for day to day living.
Kodak House from the over look
Long House from the over look
Long House photos from the site
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