Montezuma Castle National Monument AZ DSC09056
by Greg Kluempers
Title
Montezuma Castle National Monument AZ DSC09056
Artist
Greg Kluempers
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Montezuma Castle National Monument protects a set of well-preserved cliff dwellings near the town of Camp Verde, Arizona, United States. The dwellings were built and used by the Sinagua people, a pre-Columbian culture closely related to the Hohokam and other indigenous peoples of the southwestern United States,[4] between approximately 1100 and 1425 AD. The main structure comprises five stories and twenty rooms, and was built over the course of three centuries.[5]
Neither part of the monument's name is correct. When European-Americans first observed the ruins in the 1860s, by then long-abandoned, they named them for the famous Aztec emperor Montezuma in the mistaken belief that he had been connected to their construction (see also Montezuma mythology).[6] In fact, the dwelling was abandoned more than 40 years before Montezuma was born, and was not a "castle" in the traditional sense, but instead functioned more like a "prehistoric high rise apartment complex".[7]
Several Hopi clans and Yavapai communities trace their ancestries to early immigrants from the Montezuma Castle/Beaver Creek area. Clan members periodically return to these ancestral homes for religious ceremonies.
Uploaded
October 28th, 2014
Statistics
Viewed 873 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 04/19/2024 at 11:21 AM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet
Comments
There are no comments for Montezuma Castle National Monument AZ DSC09056. Click here to post the first comment.