Images and Thoughts about Astronomy
and Archaeoastronomy

Choose a category from our itinerary here, and click on any image below for a full-size image.
 
Acoma/El Malpais | El Morro/Chaco Arrival | Pueblo Bonito (Chaco) | Chaco Astronomy
Supernova Pictograph/Peñasco Blanco | Miscellaneous Images | Mesa Verde | Hovenweep

Homage, by Rosa Salter
 
Hovenweep, by Ronya Younes
 
They Came and Left, by Rachel Harmony
 
A Trip Pictograph and Poem, by Lisandra Collazo

	At Hovenweep, structures cluster around the edges of a steep northwest-southeast canyon. This is considered the "castle." It may have been used for astronomy because there’s a room with ports and a doorway which are aligned to winter and summer solstice sunset positions and equinox position of the setting sun.
This close-up of Hovenweep Castle shows the deterioration of the structure over the past 700 years since it was abandoned around 1300. The structures here, around the rim of the canyon represent some of the last building of ancestral Puebloans before they left the area to move to the south and east.
	Across the canyon from the Castle, this smaller building may have provided an alignment for the setting sun at the time of the equinox.
National Park Service Ranger, Darby Bramble, gives us a reconstructed overview (drawing) of the buildings which surrounded Hovenweep Castle 700 years ago.
	Collared lizards are engaging in a rite of spring on the rocks at Hovenweep, oblivious to the camera! See lizard No. 2 behind head of lizard in foreground. We’re told if they are startled they will run on their hind legs.
Across the canyon is Twin Towers. They were built to conform to the shapes of the rocks which make their foundations.
	Claret cup, a type of hedgehog cactus is in full bloom. A photo of one of these in bloom made the front page of Cortez, Colo., newspaper during our trip, but we think ours is better!