A Preponderance of Posteriors

This is not actually a post about behinds as the title suggests, although it’s true that a few are featured. As I just shared photos of Colorado’s Mesa Verde, I thought I’d follow up with shots of the many tight spots, steep ladders and narrow stairways one must navigate to explore these ancient cliff dwellings. It is definitely not a place for those with claustrophobia or a fear of heights!

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Our Park Ranger had an amusing tale from the previous week about a woman freezing in panic halfway up this ladder, too afraid to go higher or to climb back down. As it is a sheer cliff with no easy access, heavy equipment had to be brought onto the mesa top to lower her to the ground far below.

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Needless to say, visitors are more carefully screened than ever to avoid such incidents!

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While stairways were carved into the rock for tourists in the 1930s,

the Anasazi scampered up and down the cliff face with ease, winter or summer. 

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At left are the original handholds carved out by the ancient people to aid in their climb.

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Often, access to the dwellings was gained only through a single narrow opening, a clever idea that lent ease to guarding the fortress against enemy infiltraton. It does, however, make a tight fit for today's overfed tourists!

The photo above shows a typical entrance to the cozy kivas. Once inside with a warm fire, family groups could comfortably settle in to weather the cold, dark winter months, bolstered by the knowledge that their store rooms were well stocked with grain.
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To walk in the footsteps of the ancients is worth any effort to get there.  

To stand where they stood...to look out on the world they saw is a rare and extraordinary chance to experience history on a uniquely personal level...

Mesa Verde Windows and Doors ...and Signs, Signs

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A U.S. National Park and Unesco World Heritage Site, Colorado's

Mesa Verde National Park was created at the turn of the twentieth century to safeguard the ancient cliff dwellings found in the park.

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Cliff Palace.

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The ruined homes and villages are all that remain of a thriving community built late in the 12th century by the Anasazi, and inexplicably abandoned a relatively short time later.

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These Ancestral Pueblo people were subsistence farmers, growing corn crops on the mesa tops to fill their many storerooms and supplement the meat that hunting provided. 

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Anasazi women were famous for their intricate basket weaving, and Anasazi pottery is still highly prized. As no written record were left, these artifacts and ruins provide the only clues we have to the history of this civilization whose descendants still inhabit this part of the world.

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Kivas at Balcony House

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The largest of these dwelling,

Cliff Palace, became known in
1888, when two cowboys spotted
the ruins from the top of the
mesa, while searching
for stray cattle. 

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In these years before
archaeology took it's place in 
the world of science, they
marshalled family and
friends,and began exploration
of the site, indiscriminately

 knocking down walls and
roofs in search of the
countless artifacts which
they swiftly
removed and sold.

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More vandalism followed as word of the discovery got out, and curio seekers flocked to plunder what they could. Floors were dug up, and kivas were destroyed. While camping on the site to facilitate the removal of souvenirs, looters used roof posts as firewood to such an extent that not a single roof remains intact.

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Add to this misuse the

considerable

erosion caused by weather

 and time, and it is

apparent that the cliff

dwellings are visibly and

irreparably compromised. 

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Mesa Verde occupies 52,000 acres of the Colorado Plateau. The climate is semi-arid, and the park has unfortunaelty experienced a number of wildfires in recent years. Juniper seedlings are returning, and oak trees have begun to resprout, but it will take decades for the forest to regenerate itself.

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 A recent post made clear my delight in the storm that thundered into the park on the day we visited.  If you missed them, check out the stormy skies that entranced me...

http://imaginationlane.blogspot.com/2011/05/mesa-verde-skies.html

 

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I'm linking these photos to Mary t's meme,'WindowViews and Doors Too'. To see more views from around the world, click on the link below...

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http://windowviews2.blogspot.com/

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I'm also linking to Lesley's 'Signs, Signs', always a fun meme to visit...

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http://signs2.blogspot.com/