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Chaco Culture National Historical Park Photo of Chaco wash during a flood after heavy rains.
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Chaco Culture National Historical Park
The Center of a Culture
Photo of Pueblo Bonito taken from the cliff top

Pueblo Bonito

From AD 850 to 1250, Chaco was a hub of ceremony, trade, and administration for the prehistoric Four Corners area--unlike anything before or since.  Chaco is remarkable for its multi-storied public buildings, ceremonial buildings, and distinctive architecture.  These structures required considerable planning, designing, organizing of labor, and engineering to construct.  The Chacoan people combined many elements: pre-planned architectural designs, astronomical alignments, geometry, landscaping, and engineering to create an ancient urban center of spectacular public architecture--one that still awes and inspires us a thousand years later.

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Photo of a shark's tooth

Did You Know?
During the Late Cretaceous time, Chaco Canyon was at the edge of a large inland sea. Today we can find fossil clam shells, shark teeth, ammonites, and burrows of shrimp-like animals in the canyon rocks.
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Last Updated: April 20, 2009 at 16:37 MST