The second day, we woke up early, broke camp, and went to the Weatherill Mesa to see Long House and do some biking. We biked to the Nordenskjold lookout, then came back for our tour. The tour was wonderful because we went through the cliff village and had a little time on our own to explore. These structures were built in the medieval period, but in America, not Europe. The towers and multistory houses alone were elaborate and beautiful, and to see where they were located in the alcoves way up in the tips of cliffs, accessed by carved finger and toe holds carved into the cliff face...these were incredible engineers. I would put them up against a lot of European medieval architecture. But I don't remember learning that northern native Americans were engineers. They are mysterious, and perhaps unfathomable like those who built Stonehenge. We are listening to Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees as we drive, and there is one moment when some Guatemalan refugees talk about what it means that they are Mayan...they come from "astronomers and architects." I knew about the incredible science of the Azteca and the Mayans, but not about those in North America.
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