Montezuma’s Well
Posted in Arizona on May 10th, 2008 by: Lisa
Montezuma’s Well is somewhat of a surprise. You don’t expect to see a lake and lush vegetation in the middle of the desert. This is another place that we stopped while we were visiting Arizona. The well is a limestone sink formed by the collapse of an immense underground canyon. The springs that feed it flow continuously. The Sinagua used this to irrigate its wells. Can you imagine having to get your water like this?
The Sinagua dwelllings that you see here vary in size. There are some large pueblos that house 50 rooms. there are also one room houses. Between 1125 and 1400, 150-200 Sinagua people lived here.
The cool thing you need to make sure you do to climb down into the well. It is an awesome site from up top. However, it is even more interesting once you get below. It is quite a walk, but well worth checking out.
Montezuma’s Well is somewhat of a surprise. You don’t expect to see a lake and lush vegetation in the middle of the desert. This is another place that we stopped while we were visiting Arizona. The well is a limestone sink formed by the collapse of an immense underground canyon. The springs that feed it flow continuously. The Sinagua used this to irrigate its wells. Can you imagine having to get your water like this?
The Sinagua dwelllings that you see here vary in size. There are some large pueblos that house 50 rooms. there are also one room houses. Between 1125 and 1400, 150-200 Sinagua people lived here.
The cool thing you need to make sure you do to climb down into the well. It is an awesome site from up top. However, it is even more interesting once you get below. It is quite a walk, but well worth checking out.
Tags: Arizona, collapse, cool_thing, desert, lush_vegetation, montezuma, pueblos, room_houses, sinagua, surprise
Did you know that Arizona has its own castles? This picture is of a place called Montezuma’s Castle. It is the ancient remnants of a Sinaguan Indian Village. The Sinaguans were farmers who settled in Arizona in the 600s. They grew corn, beans, squash, and cotton. They watered them using irrigation. Around 1150, they began building large pueblos in hilltops and cliffs. If I remember correctly, there were several hundred people living in here at one time. There are several different levels that you can’t see in here. In the early 1400s, the Sinagua abandoned the entire valley, and no one knows why.
This picture shows how high up in the cliffs that this really was. It is almost breathtaking just due to the work involved. I can only imagine how many hours were spent creating this. Its hard to believe that hundreds of people lived here. They figure that they had made ladders to get up in there. Could you imagine climbing up and down every single day of your life? They don’t really know why they built it up there. It could be because it was cooler in the cliffs or for protection. They showed a model of this castle there (it was behind glass, so I couldn’t get a good picture) showing about 25 rooms in this place!
This castle is also at the same site. However, this one is at ground level. As you can see, there isn’t much left to it! This castle was destroyed by fire. I never knew that we had our own castles here, did you? I just thought they were in Europe.