At the base of sheer red cliffs and in canyon wall caves are ruins of Indian villages built between AD 350 and 1300. Canyon de Chelly National Monument offers visitors the chance to learn about Southwestern Indian history from the earliest basket makers to the Navajo Indians who live and farm here. 

Canyon de Chelly was designated a national monument in 1931 to protect and preserve the numerous archeological resources long known to exist here on the canyon rims, walls and bottomlands. Thanks to an arid climate and the shelter of numerous caves and overhangs, an unusual variety of delicate artifacts and organic remains has been preserved.

These sites exhibit more than 1500 years of human occupation containing early pithouses, cliff dwellings, and more contemporary Navajo Hogan's established long after the original inhabitants -- the Anasazi -- abandoned the area around 1200 A.D. There are also numerous petroglyphs and rock drawings throughout the lengths of Canyon de Chelly.

Canyon de Chelly today is an 84,000-acre archeological sanctuary administered jointly by the National Park Service and the Navajo Nation. At Canyon de Chelly, archeologists can observe the transition of prehistoric Anasazi to historic Pueblo, as well as Navajo history and modern life. There are still many unexcavated sites here available for future study.