Anasazi Cliff Dwellings Photograph

            The Anasazi dwellings photographed are located in southwest Colorado. The Anasazi people are believed to be ancestors of modern day tribes, such as the Pueblo, Zuni or Hopi people. The Anasazi lived some 2,000 years ago and are known for their cliff dwellings, as depicted in the photographs.
            Anasazi ruins have been found in four states; New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona. It is believed that the Anasazi were concentrated in an area known as Four Corners, where the four corners of those states come together.
            Anthropologists divide the Anasazi into two groups, first the Basket Makers, and then the Pueblo, and believe the earlier Anasazi may have lived first in the plateau area, where water may have been more plentiful. It was the Pueblo Anasazi who became masons, and from where the name “Pueblo” comes, depicting the type of construction the Anasazi were using, beginning about 1,000 years ago. They began building their impressive homes along the cliffs, which provided them more protection. Yet, within a few hundred years the Anasazi began leaving the area, and eventually disappeared.