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MESA VERDE: |
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The first of the cliff
dwellings discovered by Wetherill, now named Cliff Palace, is the
most impressive of all the ruins. It is also the largest, measuring
90 feet deep and 60 feet high; it's the length of a football field.
Composed of more than 217 separate rooms, it was home to approximately
250 persons who inhabited the city in the years 1200 to 1300 AD. In
front of the dwellings stretch circular pits called kivas, chambers
used for religious and ceremonial events by a people about whom we
have found out surprisingly little. |
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The buildings may be preserved, but the people are gone. Although a massive drought was the final cause of the departure of the ancient ones, the Anasazi were victims of their own mismanagement of the land. They burned down trees and lost their top soil; they over-planted the earth and depleted the ground of its resources.
Says a guide at the park's Far View Lodge, "There are many
lessons to be learned from Mesa Verde but the most important for
any civilization is:Protect your natural resources." |
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