Panorama of Aztec Ruins National Monument, with the reconstructed kiva on the right.
Description
The complex in Aztec Ruins National Monument consists of a “three-story structure [with] as many as 500 rooms, includ[ing] a great kiva [subterranean or partially subterranean Puebloan chamber used for religious ceremony] that is more than forty feet across.” The name “Aztec” is a misnomer as the original excavators believed that the structures were from that tribe. In fact, “The pueblo dates from approximately A.D. 1100.”
In the winter of 1933-34, workers for the Civil Works Administration (CWA) built “an entrance road, a parking area, and [did] general clean-up.” Also in 1934, Public Works Administration (PWA) workers rebuilt some of the original structure as workers “dismantled the walls and relaid the masonry” in the kiva.
Source notes
Wayne K. Hinton with Elizabeth A. Green, "With Picks, Shovels & Hope" The CCC and Its Legacy on the Colorado Plateau" (Missoula: Mountain Press, Publishing Company, 2008), 216-217.
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