Monday, June 12, 2017

Tuesday Treasures




Pictorial Tuesday Tom hosts Tuesday's Treasures.
A repost from March 2013 with additional comments and photos.

March 2013 - Montezuma AZ


We had been here in the pre-digital days of our travels in 2000. This is a photo we took at the time that was framed on our wall for a long time in our house.


Us, on that same trip in Sedona when we woke to a snowstorm and had to shop for some clothes.


Anyway, back to 2013.


Montezuma Castle National Monument, located near Camp Verde, Arizona and features well-preserved cliff-dwellings.


They were built and used by the Pre-Columbian Sinagua people, northern cousins of the Hohokam, around 700 AD. It was occupied from approximately 1125-1400 AD, and occupation peaked around 1300 AD.] Several Hopi clans trace their roots to immigrants from the Montezuma Castle/Beaver Creek area. Clan members periodically return to their former homes for religious ceremonies. When European Americans discovered them in the 1860s, they named them for the Aztec emperor (of Mexico) Montezuma II, due to mistaken beliefs that the emperor had been connected to their construction. The Sinaqua dwelling was abandoned 100 years before Montezuma was born and the Dwellings were not a castle. It was more like a "prehistoric high rise apartment complex.

2000 was the first time that I became aware of these amazing cliff dwellers and have gone on to visit others in the southwest.

This gives a perspective on the size and location that this was built.














They also have a display depicting how they would have lived their daily lives.

About 50 feet west of the main ruin is a much less well preserved complex named Castle B, consisting of a few rudimentary rooms also on several levels.








I love fry bread which we first had in 2000 at the Grand Canyon. Click here for a recipe from the Smithsonian Museum.





23 comments:

  1. Definitely an amazing place! We love that area of the country and would love to be able to visit there again!

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  2. Wow, even without the 'buildings' the landscape is awesome - and however did they manage to carve out such incredible structures? My Snapshot is at http://goo.gl/U62WN

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  3. In all the times I've been to Arizona, I've never been here. It is definitely on my to-do list!

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  4. Looks like a great place to visit. Those are some amazing caves.

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  5. I would love to visit this place! That is amazing how they built the dwellings. I can't imagine living IN a cliff.

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  6. Magnificent♫ I have visited some cliff dwellings but these seem better preserved...Thanks for sharing. My SS: http://lore-eleven.blogspot.com/2013/03/magic-hwy.html

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  7. It looks an amazing place to visit. Great photos.

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  8. I have heard of this place, but have never seen a picture of it. It's incredible how they were able to preserve the place.

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  9. Amazing pictures. And very interesting.

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  10. That would be so neat to see in person!

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  11. it's incredible how remarkably preserved they are!!

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  12. Terrific shots. I'd love to see them someday.

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  13. ...an amazing piece of history. Those cliff homes have always fascinated me. Thanks so much for sharing today.

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  14. We visited here a few years ago and loved seeing it! You got some great photos! Hope you enjoyedthe frybread! :-)

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  15. Thanks for showing us those amazing historical sites that i might not see in this lifetime. I wonder if they are really on the cliffs even during their time! Is that what the anthropologists say? How do the ancients climb their dwellings? Amazing. I recall the rock cemeteries in Lycia, Turkey which i saw a few years ago. It was also spectacular!

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  16. I visited there in the 70s, and was so glad some artifacts were on display in museums, as well as shops with replicas. I still have one little bowl with slip-painted designs from that area (though probably not the right culture!)

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  17. It makes you wonder how they did that on the side of the mountain!

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