NPS Room with a ViewMesa Verde National Park has some of the largest and best preserved cliff dwellings in North America. The ancestors of Pueblo people built most of the cliff dwellings from 1180 CE to 1300 CE. This identifies them as some of the last structures built in the Mesa Verde Region, and the people living in them were among the last to migrate south.Seeing cliff dwellings for the first time, many people compare them to forts or castles because of the impressive masonry architecture and imposing position. Living rooms can be identified by their hearths for fires and mealing bins for grinding corn. Narrow spaces were built into granaries to store dried food. Spaces such as kivas were set aside for communal and ceremonial spaces. Despite being used for only a century, they were built to last, cherished as homes by the people who lived in them. 
NPS Water is Life"Why would they build here?" is a common question many visitors have about the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde. This has also been a question that archeologists worked to solve for many, many years. The conclusion for most scholars points towards one thing that no person can live without - water.Cliff dwellings seem inhospitable, but most were built near seep springs, some of the only permanent water sources in Mesa Verde. These cliffside springs were increasingly important to Ancestral Pueblo people during the time period the cliff dwellings were built. Wood samples show evidence of extended droughts, and mesa top reservoirs were likely becoming less reliable. Faced with shrinking water supplies, people chose to move their homes to places with easier access. For more information on seep springs and the geology that creates them, check out the Natural Seeps, Springs, and Alcoves page. Pueblo ProfilesBecause of the limited space and the varied rock faces in which they were built, each cliff dwelling had to be built differently. Sloped cliff faces often required a flat foundation to be made before building could even start. Some are narrow, single-story roomblocks that would have likely been home to a single extended family, while others are large complexes that incorporate space for public gatherings.For more site-specific information, check out the cliff dwelling profiles below! 
NPS Balcony HouseBalcony House is a mid-sized cliff dwelling, with 38 rooms and two kivas that would have been home to over 30 people.The dwelling gets its English name from the well-preserved balconies, that were common features in Ancestral Pueblo architecture, but rarely survived due to being made from plaster and timber. Balcony House is divided largely into two main plazas, with a narrow passageway connecting them, leading archeologists to believe that it may have been home to two distinct social groups, perhaps extended families. The alcove in which Bacony House is built faces northeast, making it a fairly chilly place in the winter, but it also provides easy access to two nearby springs, which must have made it an attractive place to live! Balcony House tour information and video are available on the Cliff Dwelling Tour webpage. 
NPS Cliff PalacePerhaps the most iconic site in Mesa Verde, Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. With 150 rooms and 23 kivas, it was likely a vibrant, bustling neighborhood home to over 100 people. Cliff Palace was no palace, but a village like any other, except for its size. The amount of space that people had access to in this large alcove meant that Cliff Palace had room for public spaces as well as living areas.One example of this is the number of kivas. Most villages have one kiva for every six rooms, while Cliff Palace has one for every three! This likely means that the village, as a result of it's size, grew to become a public center for the surrounding dwellings of the canyon. The tops of the kivas could function as small plazas and courtyards, with private chambers below - accessible via ladder. Cliff Palace tour information and video are available on the Cliff Dwelling Tour webpage. 
NPS Long HouseLong House is the second largest cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde, only slightly smaller than Cliff Palace with 150 rooms, 21 kivas, and a large kiva-plaza at its center. Like other large cliff dwellings, Long House was home to a population of well over 100 people, and probably functioned as a community center for the surrounding villages and farms on Wetherill Mesa.Its village plaza-kiva, a place of community and ceremonial gatherings, is an example of forward-thinking architecture. Its large central plazas were rare in 1200 CE, but would become the centerpieces in almost every Pueblo village in the centuries to come. Long House is one of the best places in the park to view the springs that made cliff dwellings an attractive place to live, with carved basins and drains that go along nearly the entire rear of the aclove. Tour information and videos are available on the Cliff Dwelling Tour webpage. 
NPS Spruce Tree HouseSpruce Tree House is the third-largest cliff dwelling in the park, and one of the most well-preserved Ancestral Pueblo sites in the Mesa Verde region. 90% of what is seen from the overlook is original material, including three story homes, plaster-covered walls, and 700 hundred year old wooden roofs. Altogether, the village has about 130 rooms and eight kivas, home to approximately 60 to 80 people, who relied on the large nearby spring for their water source. This spring was also the main water source for visitors to the park for several decades.So why is Spruce Tree House closed, if it's so intact? Because while the village itself is in excellent condition, the alcove arch has been unstable for well over a century. Subject to occasional rockfall, one near-miss in 2015 lead to the closure of the dwelling until such a time the rock-face can be stabilized. The National Park Service is working on a project to stabilize the arch so that the site may be reopened. More information about the closure is found on the Spruce Tree House Closure page. 
NPS Step HouseStep House is a dwelling that shows the vast amount of time that Ancestral Pueblo people spent living at Mesa Verde. People lived in Step House during two different time periods, shown by two distinct architectural styles: Pithouses, built during 700 CE, and masonry cliff dwellings, built around 1200 CE. That's five centuries between when people moved from their alcove habitat to the mesa top, and when people (possibly their descendants) chose to return!The later inhabitants of Step House knew about previous homes in the alcove. Some of the early pithouses were repurposed into villages but most were left undisturbed. The later cliff dwelling grew to a size of 27 rooms and 3 kivas, likely home to a dozen to two dozen people. Step House Tour information are available on the Cliff Dwelling Tour webpage and look for a video on the Wetherill Mesa webpage. To learn about other types of ancient dwellings, please see the Mesa Top Sites page. |
Last updated: April 28, 2026