Chaco Culture National Historical Park

Chaco Culture National Historical Park Chaco Culture International Dark Sky Park
Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon
Coordinates: 36 ° 2 ′ 57 ″  N , 107 ° 56 ′ 21 ″  W.
Location:	New Mexico , United States
Next city:	Farmington , New Mexico
Surface:	137.5 km²
Founding:	March 11 , 1907
Visitors:	54,084 (2016)
Great kiva of the Chetro Ketl complex

The Chaco Canyon in the US state of New Mexico was a center of the Pueblo culture between 850 and 1250 . Since 1980 it has been a National Historical Park of the USA under the name Chaco Culture National Historical Park , which was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage in 1987 as a World Heritage Site .

The remote and inhospitable canyon in northwest New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington , represents an important part of America's cultural heritage. It is part of the holy land of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, the Hopi Arizonas and the Diné (who immigrated only centuries later) . With large pueblos and various other buildings, it was the center of a special form of the Anasazi culture, which can be described as the Chaco Canyon culture , for several centuries . The Chaco Canyon was the center of ceremonies, trade and administration. The construction of the pueblos, ramps, dams, irrigation ditches and earth walls as well as the roads connecting them required a very good organization and skillful planning in the procurement of the building material and the building itself. In the buildings the people combined geometry with their knowledge of astronomy . Pueblo Bonito, for example, was laid out in the four cardinal directions and the axis of the great kiva ran exactly in a north-south direction. Detailed description under Chaco Canyon Culture.

On March 11, 1907, the Chaco Canyon became the Chaco Canyon National Monument to the National Monument of the United States , on December 19, 1980 the protected area administered by the National Park Service was expanded and as Chaco Culture National Historical Park to the National Historical Park . On December 8, 1987, it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List . August 19, 2013, the area was designated as a light protection area by the International Dark-Sky Association , which is intended to keep the astronomical significance and function of the site tangible to the visitor, and has since been called Chaco Culture International Dark Sky Park . This makes it the second world heritage site with light protection measures after the Hungarian IDSP  Hortobágyi , and the world's first UNESCO world heritage site in the architectural monument class that has also become a light protection area (DSAG class 3 Dark Sky Heritage Site ).

See also

• Aztec Ruins National Monument (in northwest New Mexico)
• List of National Historical Parks

Web links

Commons : Chaco Canyon National Historical Park  - Album containing pictures, videos and audio files

• National Park Service: Chaco Culture National Historical Park (official site; English)
• chacoarchive.org Digital archive of the Chaco culture (English)
• World Database on Protected Areas - Chaco Culture National Historical Park (English)
• Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Stats Report Viewer. National Park Service , accessed on December 27, 2017 (select the appropriate entry under "Park"). 
2. ^ Chaco Night Sky Program. nps.gov;
   New Mexican Skies Protected with Dark Sky Park Designation. darksky.org, August 28, 2013.