Fajada Butte

Fajada Butte rises prominently above Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico and was closely connected to the ancestral Chacoan world. Small cliff dwellings and pottery show use from the 10th through 13th centuries, and a large ramp on its southwestern face suggests the butte may have had ceremonial importance. Near the summit, the Sun Dagger site became famous after Anna Sofaer documented in 1977 how sunlight and shadow interact with spiral petroglyphs to mark the summer and winter solstices and the equinoxes. Later debate over lunar alignments, along with erosion and damage from tourism, made the butte both a major archaeological case study and a symbol of fragile site preservation.

Pueblo Pintado, New Mexico · United States