IMAGES: Cliff dwellings, ruins at Colorado's Mesa Verde National Park

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  1. Mesa Verde National Park protects over 4,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States.

  2. Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde National Park. (Photo by DEA / L. ROMANO/De Agostini/Getty Images)

  3. Park rangers survey the Cliff Palace ruins. The park's stone and adobe cliff dwellings were built by Ancestral Puebloans from the 1190's to the late 1270's.

  4. A closer look at Cliff Palace (Photo by DEA / L. ROMANO/De Agostini/Getty Images)

  5. Another closer shot inside Cliff Palace. The courtyard and ladder entrances to a kiva. (Photo by Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

  6. Long House at Mesa Verde National Park. (Photo by DEA / L. ROMANO/De Agostini/Getty Images)

  7. Another view of Long House at Mesa Verde National Park. (Photo by DEA / L. ROMANO/De Agostini/Getty Images)

  8. A trail leads visitors to Spruce Tree House ruins in Mesa Verde National Park.

  9. Spruce Tree House is the best preserved cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde National Park.

  10. Square Tower House at Mesa Verde National Park. (Photo by DEA / L. ROMANO/De Agostini/Getty Images)

  11. Chapin Mesa, New Fire House and Fire Temple (Photo by DEA / L. ROMANO/De Agostini/Getty Images)

  12. Cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde, The rectangular rooms may have served as dwellings or store rooms. (Photo by Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

  13. The Far View Sites Complex is available for self guided tours to visitors.

  14. Far View Kivas, ancient rooms and dormitories (Photo by DEA / L. ROMANO/De Agostini/Getty Images)

  15. Visitors stop at the Far View Visitor Center at Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who lived here from 600 to 1300.  (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

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