Aztec, New Mexico is home to the incredible Ancestral Puebloan ruins of a three-story, 400-room ancient apartment building near the Animas River. Only partially excavated, Aztec Ruins National Monument has a variety of rock walls that display a change in building styles over the centuries. Similar to Montezuma Castle National Monument in Arizona, Aztec was named for the Central Mexican culture mistakenly believed by earlier archaeologists to have had influence in this region.
Museum, film, reconstructed great kiva, ruins
Aztec Ruins National Monument boasts a great kiva that was rebuilt to appear as it may have 800 years ago. We especially recommend a visit before or after seeing the extensive ceremonial structures at nearby Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Reconstruction is not appropriate at all National Park Service (NPS) sites, but here it helps the past come alive. It is easy to imagine costumed dancers coming down the stairs into the smoky kiva to celebrate a religious ritual.
The half-mile self-guided trail leads through ruins where wooden roofs have been partially reconstructed. Aztec Ruins also has the same T-shaped doorways you may have seen at Mesa Verde National Park and Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
Darker stripes in the walls were decorative, and evidence of several architectural styles are evident at this site.
All roads paved
There is an NPS campground at Chaco Culture National Historical Park, but we recommend the free campground in Angel Peak Recreation Area run by the Bureau of Land Management east of Highway 550.
Chaco Culture National Historical Park (New Mexico)
Pecos National Historical Park (New Mexico)
Bandelier National Monument (New Mexico)
Explore More – How far away from Aztec were the nearest Douglas-fir, ponderosa pine, and aspen trees used in the original roof construction?