Montezuma's Castle

The visit to Montezuma's Castle was really neat. The dwelling were built and extended by a series of native American cultures starting from about 600 AD. There were about 40 families living there at maximum occupancy. It would have been a city! The main structure is surrounded by numerous single units carved out of the limestone, with a front wall and door shaped from river rock and adobe. If you look below the main structure and a bit to the right, you can see two more of these doorways.

The location was ideal. South-facing to catch the winter sun, less than a quarter mile to a year-round river, fertile, easily farmed land along the river bank. Best of all the castle is located on a major trade route between the gulf of California, and the central plaines. 

The only way to reach the castle was by a series of ladders. I'm thinking that the folks living there had massive thighs. Not only did they have to carry themselves up and down several times a day, but they also had to carry all their food, water, and goods on their backs. Oh, and the babies, too. I try to imagine myself living there, in the heat of summer and the cold of winter, spending most of the day outside and going in only to sleep or to avoid the worst of the weather, hunkered down in the darkness . . .

And no one knows why they all packed up and left. A drought? An epidemic? An urge to move on? It's a mystery.

On the way to and from the Castle, Dennis gave us a bit of a tour of the neighborhood. We are here near the end of monsoon season, and everything looks green and such. It's actually quite beautiful country.