Mesa Verde - Cliff Palace

Cliff Palace is perhaps the most famous ruin at Mesa Verde National Park. This view shows one of many ranger-led tours in progress. Archeological investigations suggest that habitation of the Mesa Verde area began in the late Basketmaker III Period (beginning about A.D. 572) and continued through the periods of Pueblo I (A.D. 750 to 900), Pueblo II (A.D. 900 to 1100), and Pueblo III (A.D. 1100 to 1300), after which the Mesa Verde region was abandoned (Watson, 1954). Cliff Palace is one of the massive masonry dwellings created by the during the Pueblo III Period of the Ancestral Puebloan culture at Mesa Verde.