Originally published in The Mountain Connection, March 2003.

In northwestern New Mexico is Chaco Canyon, a series of immense pueblo buildings that was built by the Anasazi people in the 11th century The site’s function and the reason that these buildings were built here mystifies, puzzles, attracts, and fascinates both archaeologists and the casual visitor.

One aspect of Chaco that has intrigued many explorers is that the Anasazi may have had an intimate knowledge of the stars and the path of the sun throughout the year. They may have observed, recorded, and marked important calendrical dates such as the winter and summer at special observation sites.

Some ruins have windows or other openings in the walls where a shaft of light penetrates into an interior room at dawn or dusk, and appears to be marked by a wall niche, window, door, or petroglyph. It is unclear whether these are true purposeful phenomenon that was created by the people who lived here or a curious happenstance.

The most interesting site is Fajada Butte, where three slabs of rock fell down and are balanced against the side of the hill. At noon for several days around the summer solstice the sun penetrates through a small gap between the slabs and projects a shaft of light that intersects the center of a spiral petroglyph carved into the wall of the cliff. This suggests that its creator observed and understood the shifting path of the sun and marked the day that the sun moved farthest north in the sky with this rock carving.

Chaco Canyon National Heritage Park is well worth a visit whether you believe that the people who lived here were sun observers or not. Perhaps when you visit Chaco you will begin to understand some of its mysteries or at least feel a closer communion with a people who built a great civilization here long before we arrived.