AZTEC RUINS

I left the Grand Canyon and headed northeast towards the four Corners. This is an area where AZ, NM, UT, and CO all meet and where the ancient Pueblos lived. My first stop was the Navajo Nation in northeast AZ and then onto NM.

My journey so far has been about adventure, fun, and self awareness but if I had to sum it all up in one word it would be spiritual. This week I entered the most spiritual part of my journey. A thought provoking self awareness need to find some answers. The world as I envisioned it doesn't make sense to me anymore and so I search for answers. Religion, politics, money, and the hum drum affairs of everyday life are not important anymore. The shortness of life and the connection to something is what's troubling me and so I search.

I am in Aztec NM. The Aztec Ruins are located here and so they acquired the name. Ancient Pueblos actually lived here about the same time as The Navajo Monument and followed right after the people of Chaco, my next stop. 

The complex contains over 400 rooms and some three stories high. Kiva's, ceremonial religious rooms, were round and the living quarters were rectangular in shape. Long hallways or alcoves connected the rooms. Small Kiva's were for small family groups but the Great Kiva was for the entire village. Parts of the town still remain buried and have not been excavated yet. Mysteries still remain buried under centuries of earth. Aztec Ruins, like Navajo Monument, was also abandoned. 

I entered in a quiet reverence and walked from room to room just trying to understand. Some of the rooms were totally in tac just the way they left them. I was struck by the way they were built and their craftsmanship. Like today's construction, pillars held up girders which held up floor beams with the planking or decking on top. I built my deck the same way but this was a thousand years ago. 

When I entered The Great Kiva I entered a spiritual place perhaps a sacred place. It was three-quarters underground so it was immediately poorly lit damp and cool. I sat quietly for forty minutes just thinking. It was a peaceful meditation feeling. I remember feeling the same way at the National Cathedral in Washington. Quiet, peaceful, reverent, meditation, spiritual if you will. I left energized. 

Room entrance 

Self portrait in a room.

Long corridors. 

Small Kiva.

Large Kiva.

Small door and window openings.

Doors were my shoulder height.

Complex network of rooms.

Thick walls show their craftsmanship.

Thousand year old timbers remain.

Inside the Great Kiva.