Acoma Pueblo
We toured Acoma Pueblo with Bob and Zeina Cook in late October 2018. Also known as Sky City, it is situated on a 367-foot high mesa in New Mexico. You check in for a tour at the Sky City Cultural Center and ride to the top of the mesa on a road that was blasted into the rock face in the 1950s. The original footpaths can be used for your return trip if you choose. (Click on any photo for a larger view.)
Below left is the view of the mesa from the road to the mesa. On the right is a view from the mesa.
Acoma Pueblo, built between 1100 and 1250 A.D., is believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the United States. There are 300 homes and structures on the mesa, which are owned by Acoma women (the Acoma have a matrilineal society). The buildings are adobe bricks and/or stone, usually plastered. Not many people live on the mesa now but in nearby communities with modern facilities, both on and off the reservation.
When the plaster is not complete, you can see what the internal construction is. Below left, the building on the left is probably adobe, but the building on the right is clearly limestone. The building at right below has stone buttresses.
San Esteban del Rey Mission is one of the largest Spanish colonial churches in the state. Built in 1629, the church features a roof constructed of huge timbers that were carried from the top of Mt. Taylor, a distance of nearly 50 miles. The photo on the right below was taken by Ansel Adams c. 1941.
Stairs on the outside are used to get to the upper floors. At right below is a kiva ladder. I read that traditionally the lower floors were used for storage.
The photographs below show two views from the mesa.
At left below is another view of the Acoma mesa and at right a different mesa. Fall may be the prettiest time in this area.
References:
Sky City Cultural Center and Museum
Wikipedia about Acoma Pueblo