Montezuma Castle National Monument Book

Located in Camp Verde, Arizona, Montezuma Castle National Monument protects and interprets a series of well-preserved prehistoric dwellings built and used by the Sinagua people, a pre-Columbian culture closely related to the Hohokam and other Indigenous peoples of the southwestern United States. The structures on the site were in use between approximately 1100 and 1425 CE. The main structure comprises five stories and twenty rooms, and was under constant construction while it was in use.

Neither part of the monument's name is correct. When European-Americans first observed the ruins in the 1860s, by then long-deserted, they named them for the famous Aztec emperor Montezuma in the mistaken belief that he had taken part in the construction. In fact, the dwelling was deserted more than 40 years before Montezuma was born and was not a "castle" in the traditional sense but instead functioned more like a "prehistoric high-rise apartment complex," as many families lived there. Montezuma Castle National Monument explores all of these aspects of the site's history.

• ISBN-13: 9781583690413
• Genre: National Park, Published by WNPA
• Format: Paperback
• Trim size: 7 3/4" x 10"
• Page count: 16 pages
• Published by Western National Parks Association in 2004
• Written by Susan Lamb • Photography by George H. H. Huey
• Audience: Adult