The Montezuma Castle
Wupatpela, "Place of High Walls", Hopi
It's not a castle and Montezuma was never there. The five-story, twenty-room cliff
dwelling served as a "high-rise" for prehistoric Sinagua Indians over 600 years ago.
Celebrating Native American Heritage
Hopi, Zuni, Yavapai, Apache, O'odham
The Prickly Pear Cactus
We purchased some Prickly Pear Cactus Jelly while in Arizona.
Southern Sinagua farmers built this five-story, 20 room dwelling sometime between
1100 and 1300. It occupies a cliff recess 100 feet above the valley.
Early American settlers marveled at the structure.
They assumed that it was Aztec in origin, hence the name Montezuma Castle.
However, the castle was abandoned almost a century before Montezuma was born.
The castle was constructed in phases.
The people added to it gradually, perhaps from 1130s to the early 1400s.
About 50 people made the dark and smoky rooms of the Montezuma Castle
their home. They spent most of their time outside on the rooftops, or in the
woods and fields below.
The holes are beam sockets that reveal the roofline of the structure.
Archeologists determined the pueblo burned, causing it to fall away from the cliff.
due to its ability to catch the clothing of hikers walking by.
Montezuma Castle was built near the creek.
and the National Park Service brochure on the Montezuma Castle.
Recipe of the Day
Indian Fry Bread
by Lynn Nusom purchased at gift shop at Montezuma Castle at
Camp Verde, AZ
Indian Fry Bread. The Yavapai-Apache Nation is here in the Verde Valley
and in close proximity to Montezuma Castle.
I was hoping to try some authentic Native American-made fry bread this trip,
and we found it!
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