Built inside a cliffside alcove 27 metres above an Arizona valley floor, an ancient American castle remained a mystery to settlers in the area for decades until historians discovered that the unique structure had a much older, richer history than originally thought. When settlers and Mexican-American War veterans came to Verde Valley in the 1840s, they mistakenly assumed that the pre-Columbian fortress – nestled in the limestone embankment of Beaver Creek Canyon along what is now I-17 between Phoenix and Flagstaff – was built by the Aztecs. They named it Montezuma Castle after the 16th-century Aztec Emperor Montezuma II. The book Conquest of Mexico, published by Walter Hickling Prescott in 1843, substantiated this claim. A number of articles written as late as the 20th century also attributed Montezuma Castle to the Aztecs. But, while the Verde Valley dwelling has retained its Aztec name, its baffling history is now better understood. The cliff dwelling is not a castle and never had any connection to the 16th-century Aztec Emperor. Montezuma Castle was built by a Native American culture known as the Southern Sinagua. These people resided in the Verde Valley for 800 years or longer and developed an advanced culture built on farming and trade. While the origins of the Sinagua are unclear, they are thought to have settled in Verde Valley around AD 600 to propagate crops for food using water from Beaver Creek, build homes and develop trade routes. Montezuma Castle represented a Sinagua dwelling from the early 12th century, since earlier homes were pit houses built partially underground. The five-storey, 20-room cliffside structure was originally much larger than what remains today and once included a larger section comprised of as many as 45 rooms built against the face of the cliff. The lowest storey lay on the canyon floor, attached to the cliff with beams inserted into sockets dug out from the limestone. A row of sockets can still be seen today. It appears to have been destroyed by fire sometime before the area was abandoned by the Southern Sinagua. Since no signs of warfare have been detected, the fire was presumably either accidental or the result of some natural cause such as lightning. RV Lifestyle Story and photos by Rex Vogel PREHISTORIC APARTMENTS A Castle Cliff Dwelling in the Verde Valley Why Montezuma Castle National Monument’s name gets it all wrong 20 | www.snowbirds.org
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