Chaco Canyon is a National Historical Park which has the densest and most exceptional concentration of pueblos in the entire American Southwest. Located in northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington, in the remote Chaco Wash canyon. The park in this canyon has the largest collection of ancient ruins north of Mexico and preserves one of the most important pre-Columbian cultural and historical areas on the continent.

The height of this culture was between 850 to 1150 CE and served as a major center of culture for the ancient Anasazi people. ¹

Located in the San Juan river basin and atop the Colorado, the Chaco Wash is surrounded by the Chuska Mountain to the west, San Juan Mountains to the north, and San Pedro Mountains to the east, all of which the Ancient Chacoans obtains resources from the dense oak, ponderosa pine, piñon and juniper forests.

Three principal complexes Pueblo Bonito, Nuevo Alto, and Kin Kletso, have elevations of between 6,200 to 6,440 feet.

These people quarried sandstone block and hauled timbers from great distance so that they may build as least fifteen separate huge complexes. These buildings were apparently the largest on this continent until modern times.

Like many places in other ruins of the ancients, many of the buildings in Chaco Canyon seam to have been aligned to capture solar and lunar cycles. This would have required generations of astronomical observations and centuries of skillful thought out construction.