Located within a massive sheltered sandstone alcove, Cliff Palace has been wonderfully preserved for over seven centuries. Visitors are often awed with the sheer size and scale of the dwelling, the largest in the national park. Explore the dwelling’s rooms and ceremonial sites, which give a sense of what life would have been like for its ancient inhabitants .
Learn about the first documented discovery of Cliff Palace in the 1880s, when two cowboys who were riding across the mesa looking for stray cattle spotted it. Although it was snowing, they could distinguish something that they called a “cliff palace” within “a magnificent city.” They often returned to the site during their later cattle-herding expeditions. It took until 1909 for the dwelling to be fully excavated.
Take a ranger-guided tour of the site to find out more about the people who inhabited the dwelling. Cliff Palace is located at an elevation of about 7,000 feet (2,000 meters). Accessing the site is a strenuous yet exhilarating experience. Wear comfortable but sturdy shoes, as you will be expected to climb ladders and ascend up slightly uneven stone steps.
View several of Cliff Palace’s 150 rooms and 23 kivas (ceremonial gathering places), which likely housed a total population of about 100 people. Because of its size, experts believe that Cliff Palace was possibly used as a social and administrative site, where many ceremonies would have taken place.
Admire the intricate construction of the dwelling’s rooms and passageways, which were built using sandstone, mortar and wood. Ancestral Puebloans are thought to have carved the sandstone blocks using hard stones from the riverbed and created mortar using soil, water and ash. Cliff wall paintings were used to decorate the interior of the dwelling, using earthen plaster of different colors.
Cliff Palace is located within Mesa Verde National Park and can only be accessed via ranger-guided tour. Tours last for about an hour. Purchase tickets at the Mesa Verde Visitor and Research Center prior to entering the park.
