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

.

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.

.

Cliff Palace.

.

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.

.

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. 

.

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.

.

Kivas at Balcony House

 .
.

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. 

.
.

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.

. 
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.

.

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. 

.

 .

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.

.

 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

 

.

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...

.

http://windowviews2.blogspot.com/

.

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

.

http://signs2.blogspot.com/

The Giant's Causeway

I had visited the Giant’s Causeway in County Antrim during my childhood in Northern Ireland. I clearly remember being enthralled by its strange and magical shapes, so on a return trip almost fifty years later, it became first on my list of things to revisit.

The Causeway
is renowned for its polygonal columns of
layered basalt, the result of a volcanic eruption 60 million years ago. Lava welling up through fissures in the chalk bed and quickly cooling formed the famous amphitheatres of hexagonal columns in the Causeway.

Today, the Giant’s Causeway is UNESCO’s only World Heritage Site in Northern Ireland and it is managed by the National Trust. A very special memory for me: my sister on one side, my husband on the other, and the North Atlantic crashing loudly into the rocks around us! This is a moment in time I will hold in my heart forever.

(Photo by Troy Bell)

Of course, this is Ireland we’re talking about, and science is not the only possible explanation for this curious landscape! Legend has it that the giant Finn McCool lived on these shores many years ago, and repeatedly tossed insults across the sea with another giant called Benendonner. One day Finn decided to go to Scotland and destroy the foul-mouthed Scot once and for all. He tossed huge columns of stone into the water to build a Causeway, (which also appears on the coast of Scotland). In this way, Finn approached his opponent quietly…and then just as quietly, turned and rushed home once he saw that the other giant was so much bigger than him.

Finn MacCool

Benandonner noticed the Causeway and, in turn, decided to go to Ireland to take care of his haughty opponent. When Finn saw him approaching he was terrified, but his wife Oonagh had a brilliant idea. She dressed Finn as a baby and put him down as if to sleep. When Benandonner arrived and declared his intentions, Oonagh asked him to wait around until Finn returned from a supposed hunting trip. In the meantime she asked him to help her feed “the baby”. When Benandonner saw the size of “the baby” he was terrified as he wondered how big the father would be. He therefore excused himself and in horror hurried back to Scotland tearing up the Causeway on the way to ensure his safety. Henceforth the two giants lived happily ever after in their respective lands and never again hurled abuse at each other.

.
Believe whichever story you wish, but should you get to Northern Ireland, I guarantee you too, will fall under the enchantment of the Giant's Causeway!

I'm linking this post to Watery Wednesday! For more photos that are damp, doused and drenched check out the link

below.

http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/