Monument Valley
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| Location: | Arizona , United States | ||
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The Monument Valley ( Navajo : Tsé Bii' Ndzisgaii) is a plane on the Colorado Plateau on the southern border of the US state of Utah and northern Arizona and is located within the Navajo Nation Reservation , near the town of Mexican Hat , Utah, is administered by the Navajo and is therefore not a state reserve like the nearby Navajo National Monument . It is known for its table mountains and has often served as a backdrop for filming.
Geography and geology
Monument Valley is located in the Four Corners region, on the border of Arizona and Utah, west of the state borders to Colorado and New Mexico at an altitude of almost 1900 meters and is populated statistically in the two sister territories Oljato, Arizona and Oljato, Utah divided . The temperatures in Monument Valley vary between −3 ° C in winter and an average of 30 ° C in summer. The precipitation averages 240 mm per year and falls partly as snow. Precipitation, temperature differences and wind have made a significant contribution to shaping today's landscape.
Several hundred million years ago, the region of today's Monument Valley initially consisted of a huge lowland basin . In it, layers upon layers of sediments from the early Rocky Mountains were initially deposited in the basin and solidified into rock, mainly limestone and softer sandstone . The oldest exposed rocks in the region come from the Pennsylvania about 300 million years ago. The distinctive Table Mountain structures consist of around 275 million years old De Chelly sandstone from the early Permian . During the Laramian orogeny about 70 million years ago, the surface was raised by constant pressure from below. The former basin became a 2100 m high rock plateau. For the past 50 million years, wind, rain, and temperatures have worked to peel back the surface of the plateau. The process of simply removing the alternating hard and soft rock layers created the huge table mountains (for example "Raingod Mesa", "Thunderbird Mesa"), which rise up to 300 m above the plateau of the Colorado plateau and are characteristic of the landscape of the Monument Valleys are. The clearly recognizable reddish color of the rocks results from the iron oxide that is contained in the rock layers.
The in English Butte buttes said inspired to characteristic proper names such as Elephant Butte , Camel Butte , Three Sisters (three sisters) or Totem Pole (totem pole) . The best known are the two Mitten Buttes ( middle English for 'mittens') and the Merrick Butte .
History and tradition
As far as we know today, the Anasazi Indians, also known as "the ancients", were the first inhabitants of Monument Valley. They built the first rock cave dwellings more than 1500 years ago, but disappeared from the entire region in the 13th century before the first whites arrived. According to unsecured information from various Navajo people, there are said to be Anasazi ruins, ancient Pueblo apartments in Monument Valley, which have not yet been documented.
Today around 300 Navajo live in Monument Valley and maintain their traditions there. The Navajo use the native plants for many things, including medicine. The yucca plant provides the raw material for shoes, baskets, clothes and soap. There is more variety of vegetation in the valley than meets the eye, and spring brings out an explosion of colored flowers and blooms.
Movie and TV
Monument Valley is also known as the John Ford Country, because this director preferred to shoot his westerns (including Stage Coach with John Wayne ) there before the Second World War . A ledge that has been used as a camera location several times is named after him ( John Ford's Point ). After the war, Ford's films showed the extraordinary rock formations for the first time in color, for example in Der Teufelshauptmann from 1949. Director Sergio Leone used Monument Valley for his western epic play me a song of death . Road movies like Easy Rider later continued this tradition. Scenes from Blake Edwards' film Missouri were also shot in Monument Valley.
Both the actual Monument Valley and the similar landscapes on both sides of the highway leading there serve as a popular backdrop for advertising (cigarettes, cars, motorcycles, tourism, etc.). As a result, this agriculturally barely usable area has now become one of the most famous Wild West scenes.
tourism
Information is available on site at the Visitor Center, from which the scenic drive through the valley starts. This dusty road can either be driven on with your own car or as a guided tour in a jeep by locals, whereby the guided tours allow access to parts of the Monument Valley that are off the route for private vehicles. The well-known rock formations are, however, in the generally accessible area of the valley.
The red-hot sandstone looks particularly atmospheric in the evening sun or when the silhouette of the rock towers emerges against the brightening sky at sunrise. In winter the valley can also be covered with snow due to the altitude. The few Navajo dwellings at the foot of the rocks cannot be photographed for religious reasons.
The overnight accommodations directly at Monument Valley are limited to the Gouldings Lodge , a campsite and "The View Hotel" with a view of the valley. The house, located directly at the Visitor Center, is the only hotel within Monument Valley . Some motels are located north and south of Monument Valley in Mexican Hat and Kayenta .
Web links
- The Park Authority website (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ MONUMENT VALLEY, ARIZONA (025665). Western Regional Climate Center, accessed October 8, 2013 .
- ^ Ronald C. Blakey, Donald L. Baars: Monument Valley, Arizona and Utah. In: Geological Society of America. Centennial Field Guide - Rocky Mountain Section. Volume 2. Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado 1987, ISBN 0-8137-5406-2 , pp. 361-364.