Montezuma Castle National Monument in Camp Verde, Arizona preserves one of North America’s best-preserved cliff dwellings, built by the Southern Sinagua beginning as early as 1125 A.D. in a natural limestone alcove above Beaver Creek. Despite its name, it was neither an Aztec site nor a European-style castle; the mistaken name came from 1860s Euro-American observers. The five-story, at least 20-room dwelling likely housed about 30 people at its peak around 1300, while nearby Castle A was larger but now mostly survives as foundations. After abandonment in the late 1300s, later looting helped prompt federal protection in 1906, and the site remains archaeologically and culturally important today.