Rocky homes

Mesa Verde, &lsquogreen plateau&rsquo in Spanish, is a unique 900-year-old bunch of settlements built under projecting shelves of plateau rock. The Anasazi, ancestors of some native peoples of North America, were nomadic people who built this settlement between 1200 and 1300 AD, when they began farming on the moist and fertile top of the mesa. Clusters of multi-storey houses survive, but being built in stone dug from the plateau, can be difficult to spot from a distance. Together, houses in a cluster often form common open spaces. A hole in the centre of such a space often leads to an underground assembly and ritual space. The Cliff Palace is the biggest settlement at Mesa Verde and is open to the public. Mesa Verde was among the earliest National Parks in the US. See www.nps.gov/meve.