The name is wrong and has been wrong for over 150 years. Early Anglo settlers moving through the Animas River Valley in the 1800s saw the massive stone ruins on the north bank of the river and assumed they were built by the Aztec civilization of central Mexico. They were not. The Ancestral Puebloan people who built what we now call Aztec Ruins had no connection to the Aztecs of Mexico — they predated any Aztec contact with the American Southwest by centuries and were part of the same cultural tradition that built Chaco Canyon 55 miles to the south. The name Aztec stuck despite the error. The ruins are extraordinary despite the name.

Luca, Matthew and I visited on July 6, 2021 — the day after leaving Chaco Culture National Historical Park and on our way to Durango, Colorado for the next leg of our eight-day New Mexico and Colorado road trip. Aztec Ruins is a natural companion stop to Chaco — the two sites are connected historically, architecturally, and culturally, and visiting them in sequence delivers a depth of understanding that either site alone does not fully provide.

The History — Chaco Outlier on the Animas River

The Chaco culture exerted significant influence over much of New Mexico between 850 AD and the collapse of the Chacoan system around 1150 CE. Aztec Ruins was built during and immediately after this period — dating between the late 11th and late 13th centuries. The great house at Aztec was constructed in phases, with the initial construction closely following Chacoan architectural standards — the same carefully coursed masonry, the same room layout conventions, the same great kiva design that defines the Chacoan building tradition. When the Chacoan cultural system collapsed around 1150 CE, Aztec was reoccupied by people from the Mesa Verde tradition to the north — a second building phase overlaying the Chacoan original with Mesa Verde-style construction and remodeling.

The result is a site that carries the architectural DNA of two of the most significant Ancestral Puebloan cultural traditions in the American Southwest — Chaco and Mesa Verde — layered in the same structure on the same river bank.

Aztec Ruins National Monument is a 900-year-old ancestral Pueblo Great House, once 3 to 4 stories tall and over 400 masonry rooms. In 1916, the American Museum of Natural History began excavation under the direction of a young, local archaeologist named Earl Morris. During the next seven years he excavated the major portion of the Western Ruins and returned later to restore and re-roof the Great Kiva. The site became Aztec Ruins National Monument on January 24, 1923.

The Great Kiva — The Only Reconstructed Example in Existence

The only reconstructed Great Kiva — a ceremonial structure, the third largest in the Southwest. Earl Morris excavated the Great Kiva in 1921 and reconstructed it thirteen years later — the only complete reconstruction of a Great Kiva in existence. Walking into the reconstructed Great Kiva at Aztec is the closest any visitor can come to experiencing what these structures felt like in use — the massive circular underground chamber, the roof supported by four massive wooden columns, the seating around the perimeter, the floor vaults, and the antechambers flanking the main entrance.

Ancestral Pueblos used the Great Kiva for community-wide ceremonial events. The scale of the structure makes the community use immediately comprehensible — this was a gathering space for hundreds of people, a ceremonial center for the entire Animas River community and likely for outlying communities connected to the Aztec great house through the Chacoan road network.

The experience of stepping down into the reconstructed Great Kiva — the light changing as you descend, the circular walls closing around you, the scale of the roof structure above — is one of the more quietly profound moments available at any archaeological site in the Southwest. Having come from Pueblo Bonito at Chaco the day before, the Great Kiva at Aztec completed the picture of what these ceremonial spaces were meant to accomplish.

The Self-Guided Trail — Aztec West

A half-mile self-guided walk through the Aztec West ruins. You can begin to appreciate the architecture of the Great House and see some of the 400 rooms. The trail climbs up to the top of the ruins where you can get a panoramic view of the site.

Corner and T-shaped doorways, walk through original doorways into rooms where they can view 900-year-old ceilings and Heritage Garden. The T-shaped doorways — a characteristic Chacoan architectural feature also found at Pueblo Bonito — connect Aztec to the Chacoan cultural tradition that inspired its initial construction.

The original wooden roof beams — pine and spruce hauled from forests miles away in the 11th century — are visible in multiple rooms along the trail. Nine-hundred-year-old wood still in place in the original structure. The preservation conditions of the high desert Southwest produce these moments at Chaco, at Mesa Verde, and here at Aztec — the organic materials that would rot away in any other climate surviving intact in the arid air.

A rare tri-wall structure is visible at the Hubbard Site adjacent to the main Aztec West ruins — one of only a handful of tri-wall structures known from the entire Chacoan cultural sphere, the concentric ring construction of unknown function connecting Aztec to the most unusual and least understood architectural forms of the Ancestral Puebloan tradition.

The Connection to Chaco

Visiting Aztec Ruins the day after Chaco Culture National Historical Park — as we did on July 5–6, 2021 — is the recommended sequence for understanding both sites. Aztec Ruins is a good place to visit if you can’t make it to the less-accessible Chaco Culture National Historical Park — but the fuller experience is both, in order, with Chaco first. The Chacoan architectural conventions visible at Pueblo Bonito — the room layout, the masonry coursing, the great kiva form — appear directly at Aztec, where you can see how the Chacoan tradition was carried north to the Animas River and then modified by the Mesa Verde tradition that followed.

Aztec Ruins National Monument is part of the Chaco Culture National Historical Park World Heritage Site — the two sites sharing a UNESCO designation that recognizes their cultural and historical connection as part of the same Ancestral Puebloan cultural landscape.

The Aztec Museum and Pioneer Village

Also visited on July 6, 2021 — the Aztec Museum and Pioneer Village in downtown Aztec, a short distance from the National Monument. The museum covers the history of the Aztec, New Mexico area from the Ancestral Puebloan period through the pioneer settlement era — a useful complement to the National Monument visit that adds the more recent historical layers to the ancient foundation the ruins provide.

More Information:

• Free admission — no entrance fee

• Self-guided trail guide available at visitor center

• 25-minute orientation video shown throughout the day in visitor center

• Great Kiva: only fully reconstructed Great Kiva in existence — enter and sit inside

• Original 900-year-old wooden roof beams visible in multiple rooms

• T-shaped and corner doorways — characteristic Chacoan architectural features

• Tri-wall structure (Hubbard Site) — rare architectural form, one of only a few known examples

• Visitor center and most of trail are wheelchair accessible

• No camping at the monument — nearest camping in Bloomfield or Farmington, NM

• Part of Trail of the Ancients Scenic Byway

• Part of UNESCO Chaco Culture World Heritage Site designation

• Visitor center was the former home of archaeologist Earl Morris — also listed on National Register of Historic Places

• Aztec Museum and Pioneer Village: downtown Aztec, NM — companion stop for regional history

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