Chaco Canyon Photo Galleries

Chaco Canyon National Historical Park, a Photo Gallery

Chaco Culture National Historical Park in Northwestern New Mexico contains a dozen Great Houses, large multi-room masonry constructs. The Chaco Canyon structures were built between 850 and 1150. Of the Great Pueblos in Chaco Canyon, D-shaped Pueblo Bonito, possibly five stories tall along the outer arc, has the greatest number of rooms, estimated at 650. This view is from the mesa to the North of the ruin. The center wall aligns to true North.

Click images for larger views.

Fajada Butte is noted for the Sun Dagger hierophany, a petroglyph spiral behind slabs of rock which framed zenith passage sun and moon light as a unique, complex seasonal calendar. Below, an interactive display at Maxwell Museum, University of New Mexico, displays the change in illumination for each season. The slabs at the site recently shifted, likely studied to death!

The style of masonry varies at the various great houses in Chaco Canyon. All the masonry is of high quality. Nonetheless, the beautiful artistry was covered with stucco and probably painted. It is all the more impressive for having survived for 1,000 years in an exposed area.

Hungo Pavi Great House ruins (above) and New Alto ruins (below).

Chacoan stairway cut into this cliff, left of center, connected the wash area
across from Chetro Ketl with the Tsin Kletso mesa. Click images for larger files.

Pictographs hypothesized as a depiction of the 1054 supernova. Note lower-left.

The Visitor's Center features a museum with Chacoan artifacts, a bookstore, and a theatre.

View from a north mesa Stone Circle through South Gap. One of the ancient Chacoan Roads, South Gap Road passes through South Gap. Pueblo del Arroya is visible near the wash.

After Chaco Canyon was abandoned the most important site in the San Juan Basin was Aztec Ruins. Later in the sequence Casas Grandes replaced Aztec as the largest center. Chaco Canyon's great houses, the various ruins at Aztec and Casas Grandes are aligned on a north-south meridian. I discovered this alignment in 1990 and named it the "Chaco Meridian" in 1991. Also on the Chaco Meridian is Mount Wilson, one of the highest peaks in the Rockies. Pueblo Bonito is located at precisely 1/200 of circumference from Mount Wilson.