Around 1100 A.D. ancient peoples embarked on an ambitious building project along the Animas River in northwestern New Mexico. Work gangs excavated, filled, and leveled more than two and a half acres of land. Masons laid out sandstone blocks in intricate patterns to form massive stone walls. Wood-workers cut and carried heavy log beams from mountain forests tens of miles away. In less than three decades they built a monumental great house three-stories high, longer than a football field, with perhaps 500-rooms including a ceremonial great kiva over 41-feet in diameter.
Contrary to the name, the Aztecs of central Mexico did not build these structures. Early Anglo settlers, convinced that the ruins were of Aztec origin, misnamed the site. The name persisted. Now we know that the people archeologists call "Anasazi" lived here and in the surrounding region. Their descendants, the Puebloan peoples, live in parts of New Mexico and Arizona today.
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