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Chetro Ketl is an Ancestral Puebloan great house at Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It’s the second great house on the nine-mile loop road through the park.
Trail
A ½ mile round-trip trail takes visitors to the site, and the trail can be combined with a visit to Pueblo Bonito.
History
Chetro Ketl was built between 990 and 1075, and was completely abandoned by about 1250. It was rediscovered in 1823 by José Antonio Vizcarra, the Mexican governor of New Mexico. Excavation occurred from 1920 to 1921 under Edgar L. Hewett.
Features
Chetro Ketl is the second biggest great house at Chaco Culture, covering nearly three acres. It contained about 400 rooms. An estimated 50 million sandstone blocks were used during construction. It was four stories high but only three remain. The site contained 12 kivas, one of which was the great kiva.
A raised plaza and a colonnade facing the plaza are two features completely unique to the great houses in Chaco Canyon and Ancestral Puebloan architecture as a whole. These features may indicate Mesoamerican influence.
