cliff dwellings
Alcove stone villages
Cliff dwellings are ancient structures built into recesses or caves in cliff faces, typically by indigenous peoples of the American Southwest.
The Ancestral Puebloans constructed elaborate multi-room dwellings in canyon walls, accessible only by ladders or carved handholds: Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings date back to the 12th century.
The term emphasizes the architectural integration with natural rock formations.
- kivasPueblo ceremonial rooms
- alcovesRecessed wall spaces
- Mesa VerdeColorado cliff-dwelling preserve
- Ancestral PuebloansPre-Columbian Four Corners people
- petroglyphsCarvings on natural stone
rock art · pueblos · Anasazi · masonry · sandstone cliffs · pottery · water sources · beams · niches · cisterns · excavation · ventilation shafts · adobe · ancient ruins · terraces · rock shelters · defensive positions · communal living
- historic sitesruins, historic site, basilica, monument, fortress
- Southwest Activitieshorseback riding, rodeo, ballooning, hot air ballooning, desert tours
- undergroundunderground, subterranean, cave systems, tunnels, tunnel
- Western FrontierOld West, cowboy culture, ghost towns, frontier towns, pioneer trails
- Four CornersFour Corners, Colorado Plateau, Monument Valley, Canyonlands, Navajo Nation
- Prehistoric Americamammoth, mastodon, dire wolf, megafauna, Paleo-Indians
cliff dwellingsdetached houses
Dwellings built separately
prairie homesteads · prefabricated homes · mobile homes · yurts · skyscrapers
cliff dwellingsbrick buildings
log cabins · adobe houses · concrete structures · concrete construction · stone cottages