Hovenweep National Monument

Hovenweep National Monument

Hovenweep National Monument, several scattered archaeological sites in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah, U.S., 25 miles (40 km) west of Cortez, Colorado. The monument, established in 1923, has a total area of 1.2 square miles (3 square km).

Hovenweep consists of six groups of pre-Columbian Indian ruins built of coursed-stone masonry: the Square Tower Canyon Cluster and the Cajon Canyon Group in Utah; and the Holly (or Keeley) Canyon Group, the Hackberry Canyon Group, Cutthroat Castle, and Goodman Point in Colorado. Their square, oval, and D-shaped towers are excellent examples of Pueblo Indian defensive architecture of the period ad 1100–1300. Some of the towers may have served as storage bins; others, on the edges of cliffs, apparently were used as lookout points; still others were built over kivas (underground ceremonial chambers). Hovenweep is a Ute Indian word meaning “deserted valley.” Access to the monument is by graded dirt and gravel roads.