Aztec Monument, Aztec, New Mexico

aerial photo from the Aztec brochure

The pueblos in Aztec lie on the north bank of the Animas River near Aztec, New Mexico. These structures were built around 1100, abandoned by 1150, and reoccupied by northern San Juan peoples (from Mesa Verde) during the 1200s. The excavated west ruin contains an estimated 405 rooms and 28 kivas, including the Chacoan style and northern San Juan-type kivas, in addition to the restored Great Kiva. Some of the rooms are spacious, high-ceiling Chacoan rooms. Portions of the pueblo were 3 stories high. Later the large rooms were reduced in size, older doorways were blocked up, and new floors were laid upon the debris which partially filled some of the rooms. Mesa Verdean kin-group kivas were built, and the great kiva was remodeled and restored. (sources: Anasazi Ruins of the Southwest in Color, Ferguson and Rohn, © 1987, pp. 154-155, and Aztec Site Guide.)

The following Aztec brochure detail hails from a larger one providing the cardinal frame-of-reference.

photogs created on October 29th, 1990

After already visiting Wupatki, and Mesa Verde, these images were made on Monday mid-day/early afternoon on the way to arriving in Chaco Canyon in the late afternoon. This site is a curious place nestled as it is at the edge of the present-day town with a large portion of its area still slumbering in the earth. The bursting "fall colors" in the trees lent a rich hue to the stone structures.

window thru window

zooming halfway in

closest the zoom went

It was fun to find window/door-through-window/door shots to act as a kind of frame on whatever was at the center of this, as well as to convey the depth of structure such a shot contained. The wooden timbers supporting the rock above the window are called a lintel.