Cliff Palace is North America’s largest cliff dwelling, with 150 rooms and 21 kivas. Cliff Palace was an important community center. It may have been an administrative site, an important place of business and cultural exchange, or simply a large village. It stands now as a grand testament to Ancestral Puebloan achievements in engineering, architecture, and design.
For 700 years, Ancestral Pueblo people thrived here on Mesa Verde. While building on the wisdom of the generations before them, they enhanced, adjusted, and refined their way of life. Today, their descendants speak of them with honor and reverence, recognizing that both tradition and innovation are essential components of Pueblo culture.
“Our culture flourished here, and though the people left, the culture was not lost." -TJ. Atsye, Laguna Pueblo
Mesa Verde National Park
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service