Montezuma Castle, AZ : Not Built By Montezuma

Not a castle in the traditional sense and not built by Montezuma !

 

Montezuma Castle built circa 1100 into limestone cliffs.

Montezuma Castle built circa 1100 into limestone cliffs.

 

Montezuma Castle is an amazingly well preserved series of cliff dwellings, about 20 rooms on 5 levels about 90 feet above ground.  These “apartments” were built into limestone cliffs along the banks of Beaver Creek by the ancient Sinagua culture and lived in between 1100 and 1425 AD.

 

Beaver Creek - the seasonal flooding of which probably required the building of Montezuma Castle 90 feet up the cliff face.

Beaver Creek – the seasonal flooding of which probably required the building of Montezuma Castle 90 feet up the cliff face.

 

European explorers who stumbled on the ruins in 1860 named them after the Aztec Emperor Montezuma, under the mistaken belief he must have been involved in the construction.

Hopi and Yavapai Native Americans trace their ancestry to immigrants from the Montezuma area.

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