Fotos

Bandelier National Monument
New Mexico

Taken from Bandelier National Monument on a rainy day in May from the trail through the park. In this picture, the dwellings that were made in the cave are more visible. The rocks in the foreground are the remnants of multi-storied dwellings.

The cave dwellings are all built on the south-facing side of the canyon wall, which gets more sun in the winter and thus warmer. Extended families lived within these homes, with each having its own storage rooms, sleeping quarters, and kiva (ceremonial chamber).

From the National Park Service Site: "The ancestors of modern Pueblo people built thriving communities in the area called Bandelier about 600 years ago. Several thousand Ancestral Pueblo dwellings are found among the pink mesas and sheer-walled canyons. The best-known archeological sites, in Frijoles Canyon near the Visitor Center, were inhabited from the 1100s into the mid-1500s." -http://www.nps.gov/band/

The area was designated a monument in 1916. Between 1934 and 1941 workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked from a camp constructed in Frijoles Canyon, building the road into Frijoles Canyon, the current visitor center, a new lodge, and miles of trails. For several years during World War II the park was closed to the public and the Bandelier lodge was used to house Manhattan Project scientists and military personnel.