We left Monument Valley after bidding goodbye to that very special place with fond regrets and the intentions to return once again in the future.  We then traveled east on HWY 64 across high desert (5,000 ft.) to Aztec, NM, and another site we had heard about: the Aztec Ruins National Monument.  About ten miles from Farmington, this World Heritage Site is another excavation of  an ancient indigenous site began in 1916 by Earl Morris, an archeologist with the American Museum, and completed about seven years later.  The site, misnamed as "Aztec," is actually the former home to the Puebloan people who lived in the area dating from about 1100 and then suddenly disappeared about the year 1290.  There are many theories about why they vanished (drought, war, disease, etc.) but nothing conclusive has been determined.  There is evidence of a culture with thousands of people living in a very complex society with an elaborate system of trade, crop cultivation, advanced achitecture and sophisticated spiritual and cosmological worship.  Some of the largest structures, called kivas, were circular, three-story centers for group assemblies.  They served as hubs for other rooms, in some instances over 500, which radiated out from the center.  Here are just some of the photos that attempt to give you a bit of the flavor of the place.

Column detail in main kiva

Roof timbers support enormous weight

Main kiva ceremonial chamber

Paula looking into kiva

A honeycomb of rooms

Many windows were precisely aligned with celestial events

Elaborate framing members

They must have been small people!

Some stones were a decorative green

Exterior of main kiva that is about 20 feet underground

Hundreds of excavated rooms

Main kiva chamber--walls were over 2-ft thick