What is Montezuma's Castle, you ask. I suppose you could call a five-story, 20-room home a castle - even if it is in America. Built 900 years ago, that would be a pretty impressive dwelling, eh? The Southern Sinagua carved it out of the side of a cliff, so I suppose you could call it a cliff dwelling, too. Personally? I call it amazing!
Our first sight of it as we step out of the Visitor Center doorway isn't too impressive - though the weather is magnificent. Now I remember why we hadn't chosen to come here - one would have to hike to the location, and no one is allowed up to the ruins anymore. But the "hike" is no more than a short walk on pavement. Near the top of the cliff at the center of the picture you can see the Castle.
To the left is a river - and it is probably why the Sinagua decided to locate here. The water is swift and clear. The land between the river and the base of the cliff is relatively flat, and so farming would be easy-peasy.
But the dwelling itself is wonderful.
It doesn't look castle-ish from here, but I remind myself that it is 50 feet tall (5-stories). Farther to the left was an even larger dwelling carved into the wall, but it collapsed and is just a mess to look at.
A diorama was made for the grand opening of this National Monument, and it speaks pretty clearly as to how they lived here.
Some say this place was not a destination of the Sinagua, that they used this as a resting place before moving on, perhaps, to the cliff dwellings of the Anasazi. Could this be a forerunner of today's Holiday Inn? That's a hoot!
There's a lot more to this story - but you'll just have to come here and find out the rest for yourselves. There's nothing like "boots on the ground" to get the entire, real story.
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