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Lord Rick Rowe | Create Your Badge
 

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Montezuma's Castle and Well are two of the most visited ancient sites in the country being that they both reside just a little outside of Sedona Arizona. Although miles separate both sites only a couple tribes used this area to farm, hunt and prosper for almost a thousand years. Although I have visited many ancient sites this one is a little more symbolic due to the fact that allot of what was left behind still stands and for the most part is very well preserved which makes it worth exploring. 

The castle resides nestled up near the top of Verde Valley Cliff and it may just be one of the best preserved cliff dwellings in North America. The cliff dwellers had ladders that they would climb down when they needed to hunt or harvest crops. The cliff dwelling sat up high enough where they were secure from the elements and raids. During this time period tribes would be at war with one another. Although there are many cliff dwellings found in the American west the ones we visited near Sedona were more like crumbling ancient cities. 

In 1906 President Roosevelt designated this as a National Monument and in 1966 it was listed on the National Register Of Historic Place. Prior to 1950 you were allowed to climb up into the ruins but due to looting and extensive damage now nobody is allowed into the castle.  The closes I would get to entering some cliff dwellings would be up at the well site where some are individually scattered in ruins.

Back in the 1860s a group of miners and soldiers explored this area and named the site after the emperor Montezuma led by a King S. Woolsey.  This of course led to the site being misnamed as in fact there were no Aztecs at this site. I am not closeminded to the fact that the Aztecs came up into America as when you read about stories such as the Lost Dutchmine Mines, Three Lakes and Escalante you have to wonder if they avoided such cliff dwellings due to the fact that like the castle they were fortresses. The dwellers could merely pull there ladders away and thus be free of any attack. 

Below the castle a tribe named the Hohokam inhabited the area which used irrigation and grew crops centuries prior to the rise of the Sinagua tribe in this region. In fact they were able to use the water from the well site and direct it to there crops and today a prehistoric canal is still visible near the creek. If you hike down near the river you can see wash just rushing out of a small opening as water continues to flow out of the well. The land around here was very lush and green but it also had a major drought at least once every century which often caused its residents to flee the land. 

When the Hohokam left the area the Sinagua's occupied this site from about 1125 till about 1425 mysteriously they vanished. Some felt that droughts, war, disease or perhaps the Yavapai drove them out we can only speculate but nobody knows for sure. I have come to observe that most of the ancient sites out west had tribes mysteriously out of the blue vanish maybe they went back underground this might explain the pale beings seen by those who have dared to make a journey into the hollow earth. Its possible some tribes became absorbed into much larger thriving ones. However below the castle the lower ruins have all almost been decimated or looted. Many years ago a massive fire destroyed most of the lower castle thus only leaving behind a few stone walls at the base of Verde Cliff.  In 1933 an excavation was done of the lower castle and many artifacts were recovered which helped us understand the Sinaguas way of life.  The lower castle had around 45 rooms with an occupation of about 100 residents and was much larger then Montezuma's castle in the Verde Cliff. 

The castle you see in the photos in the high cliffs has about 20 rooms and housed about 50 residents. It was designed with five stories well above the valley floor making it a prehistoric high rise apartment complex made out of stone and mortar.  Some rooms were used as a dwelling while others served other practices such as a ceremonies or storage. I was told that when the tribes did not hunt, fish or farm they were up in there dwellings smoking pot and mating. Life doesn't get any more simpler then that and I am willing to bet in over a thousand years the view here has changed very little as well. 

The well is a natural limestone sinkhole which over one million gallons of water flow through it each day through two underground springs.  The well is about 55 feet in depth and almost 400 feet across. Scientist have found that the water contains high levels of arsenic and is highly carbonated. Also hundreds of pounds of dissolved lime are being exported from the well to a prehistoric canal. What this means is that underneath this entire area may have many sinkholes and caves. I read an article that there may be more underground caves here then anywhere else in the world. If limestone is being dissolved and being drawn out of this well it means that the water underneath this location might be carving many new caverns on a daily basis.

The wells outflow has been used since 800 A.D. as a form of irrigation for crops.  If you mix that in with deer, antelope and bear with the creeks nearby you have everything you need to survive. The prime source of food however was corn much like most native American tribes in the country. Another interesting fact is that the Sinagua also mined salt at this location. This may have been some of the first mining done in the country.  

In 1968 the well received its first underwater expedition let by George R. Fischer who was an archaeologist. There is no doubt in my mind that this also might be the entrance into a series of underwater caverns. There might even be some dry caves however the issue would be poor visibility and possibly getting lost till you ran out of oxygen.  The Yavapai tribe believed that they emerged into the world through the well so the location is rather sacred maybe to a degree mysterious. The Hopis shared a similar belief only they felt they emerged from various parts of the Grand Canyons subterranean worlds.

This location is an example of mankind's will to survive and overcome the harsh land. Near the well site is an old grinding rock similar to the one at Indian Grinding Rock in California. Such rocks were used for herbs and certain berries to be ground up for later use. Over the years of grinding small holes would be formed from erosion making the rock look as if it was covered in small craters. The area is rich in history and there is allot to see if your willing to hike around.

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By Lord Rick aka AngelOfThyNight

Founder, Producer, Author and Talk Show Host

Montezuma's Well 

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