The Cliff Dwellers
They Built Cities in the Side of Cliffs. Then They Were Gone.
On December 18, 1888, two cowboys searching for stray cattle in a Colorado snowstorm looked across a canyon and saw something impossible: an entire city, built into the side of a cliff. Stone walls. Towers four storeys high. Windows staring out at nothing. It had been empty for nearly six hundred years.
Inside, pottery sat on the floors. Tools lay where they had been put down. Corn cobs were stacked in storage rooms. It looked like the people who lived there had simply stood up and walked away.
They had. The question is: why?
~1300 CE
The Ancestral Puebloans spent decades building extraordinary cliff cities — 150 rooms, 21 kivas, towers four storeys high — then abandoned everything and migrated south. Their descendants, the 21 modern Pueblo communities, still live in the region today.
150 rooms
The largest cliff dwelling in North America, with towers reaching 27 feet.
~600
Cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde — from single rooms to entire villages.
23 years
From 1276 to 1299, almost no rain fell. But the departure started before the drought did.
The Evidence
Cliff Palace
150 rooms, 21 kivas, and towers four storeys high — all built into a natural alcove in the cliff face. Constructed between 1190 and 1260 CE using only stone tools. Belongings were left behind as if the residents simply walked away.
The Drought Record
Dendrochronology — the science of tree-ring dating — revealed the exact years of construction and the devastating Great Drought of 1276–1299. But construction stopped in the 1260s, before the drought began. Something else was already wrong.
The Pottery Trail
Mesa Verde pottery styles appear in sites along the Rio Grande around 1300 CE. The same building techniques, kiva designs, and farming methods continued in the new settlements. The cliff dwellers did not vanish — they migrated south.
A Civilisation Rises and Departs
The First Homes
Ancestral Puebloans begin building pit houses — partly underground dwellings — on the mesa tops. They grow corn, beans, and squash.
Above Ground
They move to above-ground stone pueblos. Communities grow. Pottery becomes more elaborate. Trade networks expand across the region.
Into the Cliffs
A dramatic shift: the Ancestral Puebloans begin building inside cliff alcoves. Cliff Palace, with 150 rooms and 21 kivas, is constructed over the next 70 years.
Construction Stops
Tree-ring records show no new building or repairs after the early 1260s. Something is going wrong — and the Great Drought has not even begun yet.
The Great Drought
Twenty-three years of devastating drought. Crops fail. Springs dry up. The departure accelerates. By 1300, every cliff dwelling is empty.
Rediscovery
Cowboys Richard Wetherill and Charlie Mason spot Cliff Palace through falling snow while searching for stray cattle. The world learns about the cliff dwellers.
The People in This Story
Richard Wetherill
A Colorado rancher who spotted Cliff Palace through falling snow in December 1888. He spent years exploring the ruins and guiding scientists to them — but also removed artefacts, sparking the first debates about preservation.
Gustaf Nordenskiöld
A 23-year-old Swedish scientist who made the first scientific study of Mesa Verde in 1891. He was arrested for removing artefacts — but no law existed to stop him. His arrest helped inspire the Antiquities Act of 1906.
A.E. Douglass
An astronomer who invented dendrochronology — the science of tree-ring dating. In 1929, he bridged the gap in his timeline, finally revealing exactly when the cliff dwellings were built and when the Great Drought struck.
The Question That Remains
The cliff dwellers did not vanish. Their descendants — 21 Pueblo communities — are still here. But the reason they left remains one of the most debated questions in American archaeology.
Were they driven out by drought, exhausted soil, and conflict? Or did they choose to leave — guided by their beliefs — to start a new chapter somewhere else?
Read the full book to investigate every piece of evidence — then decide for yourself.
Get the Full Book
The complete Cliff Dwellers mystery. 9 chapters of evidence, theories, and a question only you can answer.
Part of the Lost Worlds Volume
Sunken cities, impossible structures, and civilisations that vanished before history began. What did the ancient world know that we have forgotten?
See all books in this volume →