What is Chaco?
American Indian peoples have continuously occupied the Colorado Plateau of the Southwest for over 10,000 years. From about AD 1000 – 1150, Chacoan culture presided over much of the Four Corners region. The Chacoan people created an urban center of spectacular public architecture by employing formal design, astronomical alignments, geometry, unique masonry, landscaping, and engineering techniques that allowed multi-storied construction for the first time in the American Southwest. The people built monumental public and ceremonial buildings in the canyon. The buildings were massive, multi-storied masonry structures of rooms, kivas, terraces, and plazas. The largest building-Pueblo Bonito-is estimated to have contained over 600 rooms and rose four, possibly five, stories high. Hundreds of miles of formal roads radiated out from the canyon and linked Chaco to distant communities. The cultural phenomenon centered in Chaco Canyon was the achievement of a group of people archaeologists call t
