Navajo National Monument preserves three of the most-intact cliff dwellings of the ancestral Puebloan people (Hisatsinom). The Navajo people who live here today call these ancient ones "Anasazi." The monument is high on the Shonto Plateau, overlooking the Tsegi Canyon system in the Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona. The monument features a visitor center, two short self-guided mesa top trails, two small campgrounds, and a picnic area. In the summer, rangers guide visitors on tours of the Keet Seel and Betatakin cliff dwellings. Tours are usually available during the spring and fall months as well.
Total size: 360 acres

Location:
Navajo National Monument is 50 miles northeast of Tuba City or 20 miles southwest of Kayenta, Arizona.



Historical Facts:
Ancient pueblo cultures included three branches. One of them, the Kayenta, are thought to have built distinctive villages here. Their pottery styles were more vivid and multicolored, their buildings more randomly grouped and their social organization less formal. The Hopi are believed to be their descendants. The villages lie along a sacred migration route of eight Hopi clans, whose elders visit the ruins as shrines (the Hopi Reservation is 50 miles south).

Two of the largest villages lie in Tsegi Canyon and are best known by their Navajo names-Betatakin ("ledge house") and Keet Seel ("remains of square houses"). The ancient people who lived here are called Hisatsinom by the Hopi and Anasazi by the Navajo. They began as farmers living in pithouses, then above-ground homes. When erosion destroyed farming in the canyon bottom, many of them took shelter in the cliffs. By 1267 A.D., Betatakin contained three stone-walled households on its ledges in a south-facing alcove. Twenty years later, 100 persons lived there; it was vacant after 1300 A.D. Keet Seel was occupied as early as 950 A.D. by a more transient population-indicated by more kivas and design variations. It had as many as 150 inhabitants who departed about 1300 A.D. The Hopi still gather in the kivas for religious ceremonies.
Designation Date: March 20, 1909, by President Theodore Roosevelt

Watch the Clip Tsegi Canyon in Navajo National Monument. Now part of Navajo Nation, the Hopis once claimed this land as the home of their ancestors-the Hisatsinom, "people of long ago." Windows Media file: PC compatible Low: 167 KB | High: 1.30 MB QuickTime movie: Macintosh/PC compatible 825 KB >>Free software downloads: Windows Media - Quicktime

 

 

Learn More:

Navajo Overview/NPS

Navajo Fees/NPS

Navajo Camping/NPS

Navajo Facilities/NPS

Navajo Lodging/NPS

Navajo Maps/PS

Navajo Permits/NPS

Navajo Weather/NPS

Navajo Accessibility/NPS

Navajo Activities/NPS

Navajo Facts/NPS

Navajo For Kids/NPS

Navajo History and Culture/NPS

Navajo Additional Information - Photos/NPS

Navajo Plan Your Visit/NPS

 

Managing Agency:
National Park Service
HC-71, Box 3
Tonalea, AZ 86044-9704
Headquarters
928-672-2700

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