Quarai

Quarai in central New Mexico preserves a long sequence of history in one place, including a Native settlement associated with the Tiguex or Southern Tiwa Pueblo people, a substantial pueblo, a seventeenth-century Spanish mission, and later ranching remains. Settlement began around 1300 A.D., and in 1626 the community accepted missionaries, leading to construction of Nuestra Señora de la Purisima Concepción de Quarai, completed in 1632. Drought and Apache attacks led to the pueblo’s abandonment in 1675, and survivors moved to the Rio Grande valley. Reoccupied in the 1820s, the site was abandoned again after an Apache raid in 1830, leaving major church and pueblo ruins that still dominate the landscape.

Punta de Agua, New Mexico · United States