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Cliff Palace

Apartment home of Ancestral Puebloans

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Background Info

Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. It had about 100 residents at the height of its use in the 1200s.

Cliff Palace was constructed by the Ancestral Puebloans, sometimes called the Anasazi. The Ancestral Puebloans were native to the Four Corners region of the United States, where the states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona neatly intersect. Cliff Palace is part of a much larger village, Mesa Verde, in what is now Colorado.

The 150 rooms of Cliff Palace were constructed out of natural sandstone, wooden beams, and mortar made of soil, water, and ash. Tiny pieces of stone called chinking are also embedded in the mortar, to strengthen construction.

Ancestral Puebloans entered their cliff-dwelling apartments through wooden ladders. (The ones in this beautiful photograph were reconstructed by the National Park Service.) Rooms in Cliff Palace were about 2 by 2.5 meters (6 by 8 feet). Families lived together, and historians say that two to three people probably shared a room. Many rooms were originally plastered in bright colors—usually pink, brown, red, yellow, or white.

Smaller rooms near the back of the cliff were used for storing crops, such as beans, corn, and squash.

Kivas are the large, round rooms with sunken floors in front of the square dwelling spaces. Kivas were used for rituals and ceremonies, although archaeologists and anthropologists are not sure how. Each clan or family probably had their own kiva in front of their dwelling and storage space.

Fast Facts

  • Today, 24 tribes trace their heritage to the Ancestral Puebloans who constructed Cliff Palace and the rest of Mesa Verde. They span the entire Four Corners region:
    • Navajo Nation (Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico)
    • Southern Ute (Colorado)
    • Ute Mountain Ute Tribe (Colorado)
    • Ysleta del Sur Pueblo (Texas)
    • Hopi (Arizona)
    • The 19 Pueblos of New Mexico: (Taos, Picuris, Sandia, Isleta, Ohkay Owingeh, Santa Clara, San Ildelfonso, Nambe, Tesuque, Jemez, Cochiti, Pojoaque, Santo Domingo, San Felipe, Santa Ana, Zia, Laguna, Acoma, Zuni)

Vocabulary

Term Part of Speech Definition Encyclopedic Entry
cliff noun

steep wall of rock, earth, or ice.

Ancestral Puebloans plural noun

(1200 BCE-1300 CE) people and culture native to what is now the southwestern United States. Also called Anasazi.

Anasazi noun

(1200 BCE-1300 CE) people and culture native to what is now the southwestern United States. Also called Ancestral Puebloans.

sandstone noun

rock formed by grains of sand.

mortar noun

sticky substance, such as cement, used to bond bricks or stones.

soil noun

top layer of the Earth's surface where plants can grow.

embed verb

to attach firmly to a surrounding substance.

chinking noun

tiny pieces of stone used to add stability to mortar.

kiva noun

circular room entered from a hole in the ceiling, used for ceremonies among several tribes of the Southwestern United States.

ritual noun

series of customs or procedures for a ceremony, often religious.

ceremony noun

activities to celebrate or commemorate an event.

archaeologist noun

person who studies artifacts and lifestyles of ancient cultures.

anthropologist noun

person who studies cultures and characteristics of communities and civilizations.

crop noun

agricultural produce.

village noun

small human settlement usually found in a rural setting.


 
Credits
Photographer

William Lothrop

Producer

Caryl-Sue, National Geographic Education Programs

Sources

National Park Service. The 24 Associated Tribes of Mesa Verde. Mesa Verde National Park: National Park Service, 2011.


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Key Concepts

architecture   colorado   four corners   history   mesa verde   national parks   native americans   pueblos