This is a ancestral ruin built at the top and end of a very narrow ridge about 40 miles east of Durango, Colorado. It has been designated as Chimney Rock Archeological Area.

The site was home to ancestors of the modern Pueblo Indians 1,000 years ago and is of great spiritual significance to these tribes. Their ancestors built over 200 homes and ceremonial buildings high above the valley floor, probably to be near the sacred twin rock pinnacles. Researchers have thus far found 91 structures that may have been permanent structures on the ridge.

A major features of the Chimney Rock upper ruin is it located on the closest patch of ground to the twin pillars, on the highest level area above the valley floor, 1,000 feet below. The walls of this great house pueblo connects the narrow gap between the rock spires with the rising moon during the Major Lunar Standstill. This fact implies that that the Chimney Rock people were sky watchers and were able to keep tract of the days between late January and the summer soltice in June.

The alleged ties between the Ancestral Pueloan people, the locations of their structures (great houses) and seasonal calendars is fascinating stuff. More about this when I am wiser.