Ancient Indian Ruins in Arizona

Many of the most spectacular Native American ruins in the state are operated as tourist attractions, with parking lots, sidewalks, guardrails, descriptive signs, and tour guides or Park Rangers keeping an eye on things. Although some of these are included here, the primary emphasis is on unknown or unpublicized sites located in National Forests, State Trust land, and other remote places. Generally these are not as large or impressive as the public sites, and many have been severely damaged by looters and careless hikers. But as a general rule, the harder a site is to get to the better its condition will be, and there exist some pretty spectacular ruins in the dark recessed of Arizona's wilderness areas.

The map below shows the general location of the ruins covered in this website. Mouse over a marker for a brief description. Click on a marker to follow the link.

Map of Arizona Archaeological Sites

Links to sites and site groups.

1

Sycamore Canyon Wilderness A multi-room cliff dwelling, and a nearby panel of pictographs.

2

Sedona Region The Red Rock canyons of Sedona contain many Sinagua cliff dwellings

3

Tuzigoot, Hatalacva, and Bridgeport Pueblos Three large pueblos on the upper Verde River. Tuzigoot is an easily accessible National Monument, operated by the National Park Service.

4

Montezuma's Castle The best-preserved cliff dwelling in Arizona.

5

Agua Fria National Monument Arrayed across the tops of Black Mesa and Perry Mesa are ten major pueblos containing over one hundred rooms each, and hundreds of smaller ruins. There are also several large petroglyph sites.

6

Hill Forts of the Tonto National Forest A string of four hill-top fortifications north of Phoenix

7

Sierra Ancha National Wilderness The canyons of the Sierra Anchas contain multiple large cliff dwellings--and some of the most rugged terrain in Arizona.

8

Roger's Canyon Cave Ruin A group of free-standing ruins constructed inside a shallow cave

9

Fortaleza A major Hohokam hill-top fortification near Gila Bend

Locations of Ruins:

Archeological sites are fragile, irreplaceable, and occasionally contain objects of great value. For these reasons the precise locations of ruins will not be disclosed. On the other hand, if anyone wants to pass along the locations of their favorite archeological sites, we would be happy to include them on the Arizona Ruins website.

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