Cortez

Updated: Apr 21, 2022

Ancestral Puebloan palace in a cavern - Mesa Verde National Park 27

What and Why

One of the most remarkable ancestral Pueblos to be seen, Mesa Verde is simply a national treasure where the park, built during the 8th century CE, contains some of the best preserved Pueblos, the most important of them the Spruce Tree Palace which is a cave-dwelling hewn off from a cliff. The entire area houses more than 2,000 people during its peak.

Toponymy

Mesa Verde means the green table in Spanish, describing the plateau landscape. The town Cortez was named after Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano who brought part of this land to Spain during the colonisation era.

See

The main landmarks are concentrated in the Chapin Mesa area, as below. There is another branch in the park, Wetherill Mesa, that has other monuments. However during the visit it was not opened and we shall concentrate in the Chapin Mesa loop, named after the explorer Frederick Chapin who discovered Mesa Verde.

Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum

A basic museum cum gift shop, with a small cinema showing historic movies of the park. While the museum is not very interesting, it is the starting point for all guided tours, so it is a must one visit the museum.

Spruce Tree House

From the museum, one has to descend approximately 30 m to reach the second big star of the show, the Spruce Tree House.

Cliff Palace

Opposite to the Spruce Tree House, but after a distant walk, is the main jewel of the park the Cliff Palace which is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. Evidences show that this palace is built around the late 12th century CE.

The Cliff Palace was constructed primarily out of sandstone, mortar and wooden beams and held together using a mixture of soil, water and ash. The doorways are all very tiny and it was explained that there were at least two reason: i) the defence and ii) more importantly the people were short back then.

The palace was built under a cliff which in a way acts like a windshield or a porch roof, sheltering the palace from heat and rain.

The dark shade on the roof shows the intensive amount of burning for both heating and cooking inside the palace.

The palace contains 23 kivas and there is a central circular kiva for social, political and religious gatherings.

It is believed that palace contained more clans than the surrounding Mesa Verde communities. This belief stems from the higher ratio of rooms to kivas. The cliff palace has a room-to-kiva ratio of 9 to 1, while the average room-to-kiva ratio for a Mesa Verde community is 12 to 1. Hence the palace is believed to be a major political centre with multiple communities.

Sun Temple

Off the Chapin loop, there is another small dwelling area where one can find the Sun Temple, where precise astronomical observations were made.

Many of these houses involve rather sophisticated construction techniques, and together with the astronomical measurements, it shows that the Puebloans were technologically advanced.

Final look at the lookout. There are a few other lookouts and houses, namely Hemenway and Balcony in the Cliff Palace loop.

Eat and Drink

As mentioned in earlier blogs, one of my favourite American fare is the prime rib steak. Mesa Verde is around 40 km away from Cortez, which was where we stayed for a night. We had a surprisingly good dinner at J Fargo's which has its own brewery and serves its own beer. Very good.

Getting There and Around

As in other national park, the entry fee is USD $25 per week per vehicle. Mesa Verde is not accessible without a car and the Cliff Palace cannot be reached by foot from the main entrance.