Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in southwestern Colorado preserves a vast archaeological landscape created in 2000 to protect the United States’ largest concentration of archaeological sites. Spread across 176,056 acres, it includes thousands of documented pit houses, pueblos, cliff dwellings, kivas, shrines, petroglyphs, towers, and water-control features, preserving an entire cultural landscape rather than isolated ruins. The best-known remains are associated with Ancestral Puebloans, whose communities developed here between about AD 500 and 1300, including Lowry Pueblo. Later Ute- and Navajo-ancestral peoples, Spanish influence, and Anglo American settlement also shaped the region, which remains important for research, public access, and preservation against looting and vandalism.