Pueblo Bonito
Plaque at Pueblo Bonito, the largest of the "great houses" at Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico. Chaco Canyon was the center of the Ancestral Puebloan culture, populated from about AD 850 to 1250.
Transcription:
You are approaching the great ruins of an ancient Indian fortified town.
PUEBLO BONITO
This huge structure was unearthed and preserved for posterity between 1920 and 1922 by seven expeditions of
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
Gilbert Grosvenor, President
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
Neil M. Judd, Expedition Leader
The expeditions removed a hundred thousand tons of rubble and windblown sand accumulated over the centuries. They accurately reconstructed parts of destroyed walls to match the ancient masonry.