CLIFF PALACE - MESA VERDE. This photo can only be taken one time per year; on the Winter Solstice when the sun is lowest in the sky.
During the hot summer months when the sun is high in the sky, this cliff dwelling is shaded by the overhanging alcove that is 89 feet deep, 59 feet high and 288 feet wide.
During the winter when the sun is lower in the sky, the sun shines over the entire site, helping keep the residents warm. Even modern architects don't design this well.
Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in the United States. It has 150 rooms that were home for about 100 Ancestral Puebloans. It was built about 800 years ago and abandoned about 100 years after that. Mesa Verde National Park is located in southwest Colorado and is the only national park devoted to protect the works of Man. This photograph was shot with a 4x5 view camera with 210mm lens on color negative film. I scanned the film and used Adobe Photoshop to adjust the final image.
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