Ancient Chaco\' s New History by Stephen H. Lekson Chaco is an arid, barren, sandstone canyon in the middle of nowhere. But a millennium ago, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries A.D., ancient peoples not only survived there, they thrived and created an amazing city. Chaco\'s ruins awe us even today. The people we call the ancestral Pueblo (also "Anasazi") built monumental political and ceremonial buildings that towered, literally and figuratively, above anything previously seen in the Southwest. The ruins are preserved in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, 175 kilometers (110 miles) west of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Ancient Chaco … Continue reading Chaco Canyon