Montezuma Castle National Monument - Camp Verde, AZ
Posted by: bluesnote
N 34° 36.683 W 111° 50.381
12S E 423016 N 3830268
Located off of I-17, This amazing place is the last of its kind!
Waymark Code: WM12QCW
Location: Arizona, United States
Date Posted: 07/01/2020
Views: 2
Taken from Wikipeida, "Montezuma Castle National Monument protects a set of well-preserved dwellings located in Camp Verde, Arizona which were built and used by the Sinagua people, a pre-Columbian culture closely related to the Hohokam and other indigenous peoples of the southwestern United States, between approximately 1100 and 1425 AD. The main structure comprises five stories and about 45 to 60 rooms and was built over the course of three centuries.
Neither part of the monument's name is correct. When European-Americans first observed the ruins in the 1860s, by then long-abandoned, they named them for the famous Aztec emperor Montezuma in the mistaken belief that he had been connected to their construction (see also Montezuma mythology). Having no connections to the Aztecs, the Montezuma Castle was given that name due to the fact that the public had this image of the Aztecs creating any archaeological site. In fact, the dwelling was abandoned more than 40 years before Montezuma was born, and was not a "castle" in the traditional sense, but instead functioned more like a "prehistoric high rise apartment complex".
Several Hopi clans and Yavapai communities trace their ancestries to early immigrants from the Montezuma Castle/Beaver Creek area. Archaeological evidence proves that the Hohokam and Hakataya settled around or in the Verde Valley. Clan members periodically return to these ancestral homes for religious ceremonies."
Street address: 40 mi. S of Flagstaff on I-17 , Flagstaff
County / Borough / Parish: Yavapai County
Year listed: 1966
Historic (Areas of) Significance: Information Potential, Architecture/Engineering
Periods of significance: 1499-1000 AD, 1000-500 AD
Historic function: Domestic,Industry/Processing/Extraction
Current function: Landscape, Recreation And Culture
Privately owned?: no
Primary Web Site: [Web Link]
Secondary Website 1: [Web Link]
Season start / Season finish: Not listed
Hours of operation: Not listed
Secondary Website 2: Not listed
National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
Please give the date and brief account of your visit. Include any additional observations or information that you may have, particularly about the current condition of the site. Additional photos are highly encouraged, but not mandatory.