Chaco Culture World Heritage Site

The largest group of buildings in prehistoric North America. Solar and lunar alignments have recently been described for each of the Great Houses. At the center of the buildings lies Pueblo Bonito, a 600 room complex of rooms now theorized to have been for ceremonial use. What you first see here will remain with you for the rest of your life. 

Allow full day. Tony Hillerman wrote about these lands in his Jim Chee novels. We usually go west to Grants then north across the Navajo Reservation, remarkable for the open space and vistas.

Other events taking place during the height of population on the Colorado Plateau. 

800: Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne "Holy Roman Emperor" 900 Earliest surviving chant books with music notation. 

1003: Leif Erikson voyages to North America 1095 Pope Urban II proclaims the First Crusade. 

c.1150: The temple of Angkor Wat is completed in Cambodia

1162: Thomas Becket named Archbishop of Canterbury, where he pushes back against the efforts of Henry II to restrict ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

1176-1209:Construction of London Bridge. 

1163: Notre-Dame de Paris construction starts. 1190: Crusaders, for the glory of Christ, Prince of Peace, start the massacre of the Jews of York, England. 1215: Magna Carta

1214: Oxford University founded 

1298: Marco Polo writes his Book of Travels to Tartary and China 

1348-49: Black Plague kills one third of Europe's population. 1101:King Henry I takes the length of his own arm [fingertip to nose] and decrees it to be the length measure of a yard in England.

Allow 12-13 hours. Walking on dirt paths. No food or cell phone service at Chaco Canyon and much of the Navajo Reservation.

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