Between approximately 1100 and 1400, the Castle neighborhood included a larger pueblo and numerous small alcove homes in the cliff face along Beaver Creek. Nestled in a limestone cliff overlooking the creek, Montezuma Castle could have housed about 35 people. Including families in nearby pueblos and rock shelters, perhaps 150 to 200 people made up this community. These people belonged to a network of villages united by kinship, agriculture, and cultural traditions that stretched dozens of miles along the Verde River and its tributaries, including Beaver Creek, from the Mogollon Rim to the Black Hills, an area archeologists call the Southern Sinagua culture area. These farming communities thrived until around 1350 to 1400, when people began leaving the Verde Valley and moving toward other population centers to the north and east, including those along the Little Colorado River and the Hopi Mesas.