Far View Tower - Mesa Verde National Park, CO
Posted by: 
94RedRover
N 37° 14.331 W 108° 30.455
12S E 721088 N 4124280
200 feet north of Far View House, the Far View Tower was found, with rubbish and remains buried in older kivas.
Waymark Code: WM5Q2F
Location: Colorado, United States
Date Posted: 02/01/2009
Views: 13
One hundred feet southeast of the structure is a CLIFF DWELLERS CEMETERY, also used as a rubbish heap, for the Pueblo interred their dead in piles of refuse; the bodies were almost always buried in a flexed position, often wrapped in turkey-feather blankets or a shroud of reeds, and surrounded with pottery. Several skeletons and pieces of pottery have been found here. In the partly excavated ruin of FAR VIEW TOWER, 200 feet north of Far View House, evidences of later or secondary construction have been found. Three kivas have been excavated.
Colorado A Guide to the Highest State, 1941
On the east side of Chapin Mesa, the Far View sites includes five villages and an impressive, mesa-top reservoir. This is a self-guided tour of a one of the most densely populated areas of the mesa, showing inhabitation from AD 750 to 1300. Within a half mile of this site, nearly 50 villages have been identified.
Unlike the cliff dwellings, these structures were open pueblos, some even standing two stories! The elevation here, 7,700 feet is higher than the other areas, which would have affected the growing season, but increased the moisture available to support agriculture.