Montezuma Castle & Well
What would your house look like if it was 800 years old?
Before leaving on our adventure of the day, I'll show you a little of the campground
Our home for the week
The Arrowhead shaped pool
Ton found the King Snake
What would your house look like if it was 800 years old?
Badly deteriorated this
home held up pretty good.
Montezuma Castle is a five-level cliff dwelling nestled into a limestone alcove high above the flood plain of Beaver Creek, and isn’t a castle at all and has nothing to do with Montezuma. The mistake is traced to the 1870’s when explorers, doubting that the area’s indigenous people could have built such an elaborate structure 150 feet up a sheer cliff. Furthermore, the castle was abandoned almost a century before Montezuma.
Montezuma Castle is a five-level cliff dwelling nestled into a limestone alcove high above the flood plain of Beaver Creek, and isn’t a castle at all and has nothing to do with Montezuma. The mistake is traced to the 1870’s when explorers, doubting that the area’s indigenous people could have built such an elaborate structure 150 feet up a sheer cliff. Furthermore, the castle was abandoned almost a century before Montezuma.
It was the Sinagua farmers
built this 20 room dwelling sometime between 1100 & 1300. 30 to 50 family members lived there at a
time and the Mother was always in charge.
Each group living in the Castle likely had their own room, roughly about
17.5 feet by 8 feet. Ceilings were
about 5 feet high. Women and children
likely did the annual patching of exterior walls that eroded easily. Peepholes and doorways provided light in the
morning and early afternoon but late afternoon and evening were very dark.
Down the road a few miles is the Montezuma Well. Ton hiked here while I hung around the visitor’s center. I opted out of the walk because it was a long distance uphill.
Even in drought about 1.6 million gallon (6 million liters) flow through two main vents at the wells bottom. The amount is regular and the temperature is a constant 74 F (23C.)
A different world exists under the surface. There are No Fish. Instead, thousands of freshwater leeches swim under the surface at 55 feet (17 m) It is an amazing type of well.
One of the most distinctive sights at the Castle is the White-Barked Arizona Sycamore, often reaching heights of 80 feet. The endurance of these trees is awesome. The ceiling beams, some that you see sticking out of the walls of the castle is made of these trees. If supporting the roof isn't enough, think about all the ladders needed to get up into the castle and the buckets of water and crops being carried up on some of those trips to the top. It is a very sturdy that provided the materials needed.
Hope the history didn't bore you; but I loved this National Monument.
Sunset out of our RV window
2 comments:
It's good to know that even though theme parks attempt to recreate sites like these, that the real thing looks to far surpass any recreations. To imagine these dwellings have withstood so much for so many years, simply amazing.
OH what a fun day we had!!!!! Both of you look terrific.....
Hugs, Betty
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