You were expecting melodrama, and I'm going to give you Sinagua dwellings.
Sinagua ("without water") is an inaccurate, non-descriptive name given to the people who lived and farmed here, with plenty of water.
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| Conagua |
The Palatki ruins "require" reservations to visit. If you show up without calling first, they'll probably still fit you in, but this is not the kind of higgeldy-piggeldy, willy-nilly lawscoffing I can promote.
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See the handprints in the mortar?
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The scratches visible in the center of the picture are thought to be about 10,000 years old, made by settlers long before the Sinagua arrived. The later pictographs seem much more sophisticated, only because ballpoint pen technology leaped forward in those 9,000 years.
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| Snake! |
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| The Grotto |
16 comments:
Good pictures. That is a beautiful area. I thought I read that the "sin aqua" name was given when they moved out, so to speak, because of the lack of water to grow crops.
Virtual hugs,
Judie
Gorgeous! Sin or con.
I love the Sedona area. So cool!
Gorgeous rock world....nice that we really don't know crap about it, huh?!
That brings back some memories. The family (minus Dad, who was attending a meeting in Sedona) visited the Sinagua ruins when the brother and I were pre-teens. We toured several archæological sites in the area, but for every hour looking at ruins, we spent about five at "Indian jewelry" stores. Naturally, the brother and I were bored out of our minds. Finally, we stopped at a place with a sign reading, "HOPI Rugs & Jewelry". I nudged the brother and muttered, "When we go to an Indian jewelry store, there's no HOPI." The resulting peals of endless laughter got us in serious trouble.
LOWELL, Bleen. I remember that story from the old Live Journal days; it's a corny classic. Parents can be so humorless!
Brian, I often feel that the less I "understand," the happier I am. You know what I'm saying.
I love it, too, Nancy. There aren't a lot of places more beautiful.
Isn't it, Gaelyn? It's a shame you're not going somewhere beautiful soon.
Judie, it's my "understanding" that the Spanish found a clan living and farming in the San Francisco mountains where there are (oddly) no apparent mountain streams. You've probably seen Montezuma's Well, where the "sin agua" canals are still intact and active. Still, all I know is what I've been told by a handful of docents, and the stories are always a little different.
Beautiful pictures.
Great ruins, haven't heard of Sinagua before. Glad you're still exploring out there.
Thanks, Sue!
Thanks, Pam. Put on another layer - your blog is freezing me to death.
Fantastic pictures!
I love this type tour. We'll have to make sure we get there during our next visit. Thanks for sharing!!
Where and what are we going to do tomorrow? Where we going?? Huh? Where we going?
Slow down, Rachael! I'm still recovering from the hike!
You'll really like the real thing, Pam.
It's beautiful! I was immediately reminded of Garden Of The Gods while browsing your photos.
Thanks, C&A!
It is beautiful, Latrecia. I don't know Garden of the Gods, but Google is my friend.
have been told they no longer have the horse back rides into Garden of the Gods, but if you are ever in the area be sure and go as with your pics it is a beautiful place
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