oasis in the western U.S. desert, this site has seen many
centuries of travelers. The remains of a mesa top pueblo are atop the
promontory where between about 1275 to 1350 AD, up to 1500 people lived in this
875 room pueblo. The Spaniard explorers called it
El Morro (
The Headland). The Zuni Indians call
it "A'ts'ina" (
Place of
writings on the rock). Anglo-Americans called it
Inscription Rock.
Travellers left signatures, names, dates, and stories of their treks. While
some of the inscriptions are fading, there are still many that can be seen
today, some dating to the 17th century. Some petroglyphs and carvings were made
by the Ancestral Puebloan centuries before Europeans started making their mark.
In 1906, U.S. federal law prohibited further carving.
The many inscriptions, water pool, pueblo
ruins, and top of the promontory are all accessible via park trails
