LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Chaco Canyon: Pueblo Bonito
built 607 days ago
Pueblo Bonito, one of the largest of the Chaco Canyon pueblos, is a good example of how the Anasazi lived. Pueblo Bonito rose four to five stories high — an astounding achievement for the time. Rooms surrounded a central plaza, and throughout the settlement were a number of kivas, meeting places that served a ceremonial purpose. The total population of Pueblo Bonito was probably around 1,200 people at its height. Surrounding the pueblo were a number of smaller dwellings and structures. Numerous communities looked to Chaco Canyon for political and religious guidance.
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Chaco Canyon once was a major center for Ancestral Puebloan culture (Anasazi). Their architecture, social organization and community life was unlike anything before or since with monumental public and ceremonial buildings, engineering projects and artistic achievements. Come study the prehistory of Chaco Canyon with a professional Archaeologist. Learn how the people of the canyon lived their daily lives. Explore the wonders of Chaco Canyon by hiking to the many ruins and rock art sites. Learn about Chaco archaeoastronomy, attend Park Service programs, visit the park observatory and try your hand at skills used by the ancient people, such as throwing the atlatl.
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Chaco Canyon lies within the San Juan Basin, atop the vast Colorado Plateau, surrounded by the Chuska Mountains in the west, the San Juan Mountains to the north, and the San Pedro Mountains in the east. Ancient Chacoans relied upon their dense forests of oak, piñon, ponderosa pine, and juniper to obtain timber and other resources. The canyon itself, located within lowlands circumscribed by dune fields, ridges, and mountains, runs in a roughly northwest-to-southeast direction and is rimmed by flat massifs known as mesas. Large gaps between the southwestern cliff faces (side canyons known as rincons) were critical in funneling rain-bearing storms into the canyon, boosting local precipitation levels.[8] The principal Chacoan complexes, such as Pueblo Bonito, Nuevo Alto, and Kin Kletso, have elevations of 6,200 to 6,440 feet (1,890 to 1,963 m).
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A thousand years ago, Chaco Canyon sat at the center of a thriving civilization. Ancestors of the Pueblo Indians built monumental “great houses” from the yellow-orange sandstone that permeates the region. The largest of the great houses is Pueblo Bonito. In its prime, this giant building was four stories tall and had more than 600 rooms.
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The Canyon overlook/Pueblo Alto trail climbs from about 6,179 feet on the floor of Chaco Canyon to about 6,500 feet at the ruins. The trail starts in a cleft in the rock cliff at about N 36° 03.909' W 107° 58.228'. The majority of the elevation gained is here and you are rewarded almost immediately with spectacular views of the canyon and the ruins below. The trail crosses mostly solid rock and is therefore marked periodically with small rock cairns.
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From AD 850 to 1250, Chaco Canyon served as a major urban center of ancestral Puebloan culture. Remarkable for its monumental public and ceremonial buildings, engineering feats, astronomy, artistic achievements, and distinctive architecture, it served as a hub of ceremony, trade, and administration for the prehistoric Four Corners area for 400 years--unlike anything before or since.
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Pueblo Bonito