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Location:
The Gran Quivira Ruins are located about 25 miles south of Mountainair, New Mexico at about 6500 feet elevation with the mission in the background.
Coordinates:
34.2590567, -106.0938121
Elevation:
6479 feet
Geographical Region:
Basin and Range
Ecoregion:
Tablelands ecoregion
(m1stone-salinas-nm-granquivira-2014-0417.1253) The Salinas Culture, NM: Abo Ruins
No one knows how this ruin received the title of Gran Quivira. Dozens of traditions, theories and methinks have tried to explain why it is call such, but we will have to wait for the resurrection to find out.
Nevertheless, ever since the days when Coronado walked across this land, the name Quivira has been associated with a great unknown city, one of wealth and splendor, that is situated somewhere on the Eastern Plains.
Not at all unlikely is that when some hunting party from the Rio Grande Valley, crossed the mountains and there in the wilderness lying just to the east, they found something so amazing. What was this apparition, one of a dead city, now silent for untold years and without inhabitants for centuries, but bearing all the evidences of a previously large population, one with vast resources, great architectural knowledge, mechanical ability, and undiminished energy.
Imagine coming upon this ruin, how it would make one think of childhood stories of past ages, great kingdoms filled with riches, mighty rulers powerful in war and conquest and vast civilizations. Methinks, these are the places where these dreams come from and here is that grand city so sought after, the Gran Quivira.
At the Grand Quivara pueblo, there is also found the partially excavated pueblo of Las Humanas.
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