The cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde are some of the most notable and best preserved in the North American Continent. Sometime during the late 1190s, after primarily living on the mesa top for 600 years, many Ancestral Pueblo people began living in pueblos they built beneath the overhanging cliffs. The structures ranged in size from one-room storage units to villages of more than 150 rooms. While still farming the mesa tops, they continued to reside in the alcoves, repairing, remodeling, and constructing new rooms for nearly a century. By the late 1270s, the population began migrating south into present-day New Mexico and Arizona. By 1300, the Ancestral Puebloan occupation of Mesa Verde ended.

Use the links below to learn more about some of the cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde National Park. For site locations, go to park maps, or click on the specific map located on each page below.

(Note: All maps on the following Cliff Dwelling pages open as pdfs. You can get the Free Adobe Reader, which is required to read the pdf files, here.)