Cliff Palace: 150 Rooms Sheltered Beneath a Massive Rock Overhang (3 Photos)

Cliff Palace in Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park resembles a miniature city carved beneath a towering rock ledge. The site features roughly 150 rooms and 23 kivas—subterranean chambers used for civic and ceremonial gatherings. Archaeologists estimate that around one hundred people once lived here.





A general view of Cliff Palace.

By the standards of local cliff dwellings, this is an extraordinary scale. Most of the more than 600 similar sites across the park are far more modest, with three-quarters consisting of just one to five rooms. Researchers believe Cliff Palace served as an important social and ceremonial hub.

The Ancestral Puebloans built using sandstone, mortar, and wooden beams. They shaped the building blocks with harder river stones and packed small stone chinks into the mortar joints. The walls were finished with colored earthen plaster—a delicate layer that was especially susceptible to weathering.



Cliff Palace prior to wall stabilization. Late 19th-century archival photograph, Nordenskiöld Collection, MEVE 11084.

Comparing the archival and contemporary images highlights the immense effort needed to reinforce the settlement. Over the centuries, water, frost, and rockfalls took a heavy toll on the masonry. In the late 19th century, natural decay was exacerbated by relic hunters who even resorted to dynamite to unearth artifacts. Today, park conservators inspect and maintain the walls on a regular basis.



The same section after the masonry was stabilized.