Travel Guide Canyon Of The Ancients National Monument

The national monument is located at the south-west boundary of Colorado on the border with Utah, almost where the Four Corners join (Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah), the only place in the United States where four states have a common border. It is separated from fifty kilometers from Mesa Verde National Park. The park, created in 2000 by a presidential decree to preserve this unique historic heritage, extends over a surface of 663 km 2 in a rugged and spectacular decor. A former region inhabited by Amerindians, almost 10,000 years ago, there were vestiges of Anasazis tribes that would have settled there around 750 BC. Unlike most of the native tribes of the time, the Anasazis were a sedentary people of farmers. These are remnants of ancient villages that can be observed in the region and in Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. It would contain the highest concentration of US archeological sites, consisting of well-preserved testimonies of life at the time. In total, there would be 6,355 sites belonging to former villages, houses but also cliffs, Kivas (often circular and semi-buried pieces, used for religious rituals) and rock art identified therein.