montezuma cliff castle

Interstate 17 southwest towards Camp Verde breaks south to Montezuma Castle Highway and Montezuma Castle Road, leading to the cliff dwelling itself.

Established December 8, 1906, Montezuma Castle is the third National Monument dedicated to preserving Native American culture. This 20 room high-rise apartment, nestled into a towering limestone cliff, tells a story of ingenuity, survival and ultimately, prosperity in an unforgiving desert landscape.

A presidential Proclamation was signed by President Theodore Roosevelt setting aside 160 acres to preserve it as a national monument.

There is a loop pathway you can walk around to view a neighboring pueblo dwelling before getting to the castle itself, so I started by walking over to “Castle A”.

A pueblo with about 45 rooms in multiple levels once stood against this cliff face. The upper row of sockets reveals the roofline of the fifth and highest level of the structure.

Archeologists excavated this site in the 1930s, removing the rubble and reconstructing these lower rooms. They determined the pueblo had burned, causing it to fall away from the cliff.

As you walk a bit further down the path, you are finally greeted by the impressive group habitation of the Sinagua. Functional in placement, and a testament to co-habitation and co-existence with the elements.

…the dwelling at Montezuma Castle is actually a collection of 20 rooms originally belonging to multiple families, similar to a modern-day apartment building. Other apartment-style buildings called pueblos, like those found at Montezuma Well and Tuzigoot also had multiple rooms and were built with local materials.