The Community

A farming community of perhaps 200 people prospered here for more than three centuries, with the Castle serving as home to about 35 of them. Archeologists suggest they may have fled what is now the Flagstaff area because of overpopulation around A.D. 1100. Their name, Sinagua, is a variation of the Spanish sin agua, meaning without water. Excavated mounds of broken pottery, worn-out tools, animal bones, and other trash at the base of the cliff have allowed archeologists to reconstruct the Sinagua's rich lifeways as reflections of their intimate relationship with the land.

Arizona · United States