Mesa Verde

Mesa Verde is a plateau cut by canyons in south-western Colorado, where Ancestral Puebloans farmed until about 1285 and a national park now protects more than 4,000 archaeological sites, some 600 of them cliff dwellings. The first pueblos there were built after 650, and from the end of the 12th century villages of stone were raised in alcoves of the canyon walls, the largest being Cliff Palace. After prolonged droughts the last inhabitants moved south into Arizona and New Mexico. The park was created in 1906 and became a World Heritage Site in 1978.