How Good And Pleasant!

The Pueblo Del Arroyo was a major cultural center for the Ancient Puebloans between AD 850 and 1250.

It is located in the Chaco Canyon of Northwestern New Mexico between Albuquerque and Farmington.

In this Puebloan site there are fifteen main complexes known as Great Houses which were constructed by quarrying sandstone blocks and hauling timber from great distances.

These Great Houses contain hundreds of rooms of multiple stories and were connected by roads to more than 150 other Great Houses in the region.

The Chaco Pueblo also oriented their buildings to solar, lunar, and cardinal directions.

Until the 19th century, the Pueblo Del Arroyo contained the largest structures in North American.

Unfortunately, the fifty-year drought starting in 1130 forced the Ancient Puebloans to emigrate elsewhere and eventually abandon living in the Chaco Canyon all together.

In this area, the winters are long, the growing season is short and the rainfall in minimal. But this did not stop the ancestral Puebloan culture to take root and flourish here for 300 years.

Brian and I immensely enjoyed our time here exploring the past history of a very close-knit people!

 

May we all learn from the Puebloan's example of how good and pleasant it is when people live together in unity.

 

 "How good and pleasant it is

when God's people

live together in unity!"

Psalm 133:1 (NIV)