Above the Painted Desert in Arizona: Wupatki National Monument

Lomaki means "Beautiful House" in the Hopi language. This building has nine rooms built with local limestone and sandstone in the last decade of the 1100s. NPS

Travelers to Arizona have a lot to see and do when it comes to nature, history, culture, and the great outdoors. Wupatki National Monument is one of the wonders of northern Arizona. The monument marks a settlement of scattered sites built by the Sinagua nation over 900 years ago when this part of Arizona was much cooler.The central attraction of this national monument is the Wupatki Pueblo, which is an impressive multi-story building with over 100 rooms that look out over the more famous Painted Desert.

Wupatki, which means “Long Cut House” in the Hopi language, has several unique features. The Wupatli Pueblo has a geologic anomaly called a blowhole, or a natural vent from which air flows in and out through the ground. Other unique features include two above-ground kivas (community houses) and a large Hohokam-style ball court, where ball games and social events were held. Ball courts were common in southern Arizona from 750 A.D. to 1200 A.D., but the Wupatki court is the northernmost example discovered so far.

Points of Culture and History

After the nearby Sunset Crater Volcano erupted around 1065 A.D., people began gathering at the site of Wupatki. The ash fall from the volcanic event made the once bone-dry area able to retain water much better. Good growing conditions drew people from all over the region. These migrants joined the Sinagua people already living in the area. They began constructing buildings from natural materials like sandstone slabs, limestone blocks, and basalt set with clay-based mortar. Archaeologists believe that by around 1182, a population of nearly 100 lived in this pueblo. In addition, several thousand others lived in smaller pueblos and mud brick houses a day’s walk from the pueblo, which was the largest for more than 50 miles in any direction.