Balcony House 3D

The follwing information and images provide an overview of Balcony House, one of the larger cliff dwelling villages located within Mesa Verde National Park. After reviewing the information with your students, follow the link below to access the 3D virtual model of Balcony House.

Working in small groups, have your students navigate through the 3D model and answer the following questions in their explorer journals. Note: the model can be difficult to maneuver through. Have your students take turns navigating through the site.

Balcony House 3D

1. Can you find the following items as your explore the 3D model of Balcony House? See if you can get a bingo or blackout!

2. Over time, many of the items and objects that filled the homes of Balcony House have been removed. Pick a room within in the 3D model. What do you think it was used from? List 5 items that might have filled this space.

 

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Balcony House Overview

Balcony House is one of the larger cliff dwellings located within Mesa Verde National Park. Throughout the summer, rangers lead tours of this home built long ago by Ancestral Pueblo people.

 

 

Exploring Balcony House is very adventurous. In order to get inside, visitors must climb a 32-foot-tall ladder!

 

Once inside the site, visitors can explore the rooms and plazas with a ranger. There are 38 rooms and two kivas in Balcony House.

 

Life in a Cliff Dwelling

Cliff dwellings become a popular style of home in Mesa Verde in the 1100's. A cliff dwelling is a pueblo home or village built into an alcove. An alcove is a natural shallow cave located in the steep walls of the canyons.

Perhaps people moved into these alcoves for the protection they provided from the wind and snow. Cliff dwellings also have limited points of access, providing protection from unwanted visitors. Active seep springs where families could collect water were also located below the canyon rim, in or near many of these alcove sites providing another reason to live in a cliff dwelling.

Life in a cliff dwelling would have been bustling with daily activities: people building new rooms, reparing roofs, grinding corn from the fields, making tools, and singing songs. Children would have helped with chores, played games, and listened to stories told by their parents and elders.