Indian Ruins, Kayenta, Arizona
Navajo National Monument
Navajo National Monument preserves three intact cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloan people. Although many archaeologists agree that there is a definitive and sharp exodus from this region in the Southwest, there has been considerable debate on the determining factors that forced people to migrate out of this area. Archaeologists have determined that there was a distinct decrease in the amount of annual precipitation between AD 1276 and 1299, a period of time that is now referred to as the "Great Drought".