USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -They moved their residences from the middle of the canyon floor to the canyon walls and cliffs, which provided natural protection from their nomadic neighbors. The Ancestral Puebloans constructed their cliff homes from hand-cut stone blocks and mortar made from adobe, a heavy clay soil.

Detailed explanation-2: -Some archeologists suggest that, by living in the canyons rather than on the mesas, the Cliff Dwellers made more land available for cultivation in a century that saw two major droughts. Others believe that cliff dwellings were built as protection against some unidentified enemy.

Detailed explanation-3: -The cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde are some of the most notable and best preserved in North America. Sometime during the late 1190s, after primarily living on the mesa tops for 600 years, many Ancestral Pueblo people began moving into pueblos they built into natural cliff alcoves.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Anasazi built their dwellings under overhanging cliffs to protect them from the elements. Using blocks of sandstone and a mud mortar, the tribe crafted some of the world’s longest standing structures.

Detailed explanation-5: -Imagine living in a home built into the side of a cliff. The Ancestral Puebloan peoples, formerly known as the Anasazi, did just that in some of the most remarkable structures still in existence today.