Pueblo Ruins in Bandelier National Monument, N.M. Poster

Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico protects more than 33,000 acres of canyon and mesa landscape. In the monument are the ruins of a human presence going back over 11,000 years. Petroglyphs, dwellings carved into the soft rock cliffs, and standing masonry walls are evidence of the early days of a culture that still survives in the surrounding communities. The Ancestral Pueblo people lived here from approximately 1150 to 1550. By 1550, the Ancestral Pueblo people had moved from this area to pueblos along the Rio Grande when the land could no longer support them. The people of Cochiti Pueblo, located just south and east along the Rio Grande, are the most direct descendents of the Ancestral Pueblo people who built homes in Frijoles Canyon.