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Pueblo Bonito is an Ancestral Puebloan great house at Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It sits in the middle of the nine-mile loop road through the park.
Trail
Pueblo Bonito is the most important archaeological site at Chaco Culture. There’s a ½ mile trail around the site, and it can easily be combined with a visit to Chetro Ketl.
History
The structure was built between 850 and 1150. It contained about 800 rooms and stood four or five stories high. Lt. James Simpson rediscovered the site during a military expedition in 1849.
The first excavations started in 1896 and were led by rancher Richard Wetherill, who had rediscovered Cliff Palace (now at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado) eight years earlier. Further excavations occurred from 1920 to 1927 led by the Smithsonian Institution and the National Geographic Society.
Construction
Pueblo Bonito was divided into two sections with a wall dividing the center of the plaza. A great kiva sat on either side of the wall, and over 30 other kivas have been found.
Archaeologists aren’t sure if the structure was meant to be a village or ceremonial site. Excavations haven’t revealed trash middens found at other residential sites, and only 50 to 60 burials were found there.
