Montezuma Castle

Deciding it was absolutely necessary to take a break from unpacking all my belongings in the new apartment, I found myself in Rimrock, Arizona, this past weekend.

And I saw a castle there. Well, kind of.

Montezuma Castle is an enormous cliff dwelling built by the Sinagua over 400 years ago. What's really interesting to me is to look at what was going on in other parts of the world around the same time. For example:

-the British began settling North America
-Russia was descending into anarchy
-the Gregorian calendar (currently the most popular worldwide) was put into effect

The structure has between 45-50 rooms and was protected as a national monument by Theodore Roosevelt at the turn of the last century.

I wish the public were still allowed to walk through the castle and explore the rooms, but the government was forced to restrict access in the 1950s in order to preserve the structure's stability. Now the only people who get to experience the view from Montezuma Castle are park personnel.

As Napoleon Dynamite would say: Lucky.


Photos: Sway Sovay