On your way to Sedona and other northern destinations, you may see signs for something called Montezuma’s Castle. Is it worth the little side trip? If you’ve never seen ancient cliff dwellings in person, definitely.
That said: It’s not a castle. And it has nothing to do with any Aztec emperor named Montezuma. (The people who came up with the name apparently needed to learn a thing or two about false advertising.)
Montezuma’s Castle is, in fact, an ancient apartment-like structure, set into the cliffs in Camp Verde, Arizona. The building was used by the Sinagua people between approximately 1100 and 1425 AD.
From the visitor’s center, it’s an easy, mostly-level walk to the viewing area, just below the grand ancient ruins.
A history of Montezuma Castle National Monument
Here’s a little history of the place, as the Flagstaff newspaper The Arizona Daily Sun explained it back in the 1970s.
Adapted from The Arizona Daily Sun (Flagstaff) April 9, 1973
“Did Montezuma really live here?”
That question, in as many assorted forms as there are visitors, is one of the most frequently asked when people see the ancient “apartment houses” that make up Montezuma Castle National Monument, near Camp Verde.
The “castle” is a collection of ancient Sinaguan living sites, occupied almost 1000 years ago, and the Aztec emperor did not live in the “castle” — he never got anywhere near it.
The name Montezuma’s Castle was given the site by a group of pioneers who took a wild guess when they first saw the ancient ruins, and who were dead wrong.
All the evidence, a Park Service brochure tells you, points to 1100 AD as the time when a group of “dryfarming Indians entered the Verde Valley from the north.”
One of Montezuma’s Castle’s many caves
“These people,” the brochure explains, “referred to as the Sinagua, were probably forced out of the Flagstaff area by overpopulation. They built small communal dwellings of stone and farmed dry areas and the few terraces still available.
“Around 1250, they began to erect large, compact structures, often on hilltops or cliffs.
“One can easily imagine the enthusiasm felt by a group of farmers when it first saw the sheltering, cavern-studded limestone along the north bank of the Beaver Creek, only four miles from the Verde River.”
The “sheltering, cavern-studded limestone” became the site of Montezuma Castle, and what is known to Park Service employees as Castle A.
The main “castle” had about 20 rooms, and probably accommodated about 50 people. Castle A had about 45 rooms.
The Sinagua were a hardy people. They stayed at Montezuma Castle, and in the surrounding area, for two centuries.
Their life, while it might have been hard, must have had some time for art and beauty, probably in connection with religious rites and daily living.
Montezuma’s Castle apparently was a peaceful place to live. Two of the Southwest’s major prehistoric cultures even “blended” there.
Along with the Sinagua, the Hohokam moved into the area and the two peoples apparently lived without conflict, “adopting customs and practices from each other.”
Arizona’s capricious nature was to be the main cause of the eventual downfall of the “castle” as a living site.
In the 1200s, there was a series of droughts in the Flagstaff area. More and more Sinagua people moved into the Verde Valley, where life was a little more certain.
The results of this influx of new residents brought about inter-pueblo strife over such matters as farmable land and spring-fed streams, and by 1450, that strife had taken its final toll.
Montezuma Castle was completely deserted as a living site.
For many years, visitors to the two “castles” could climb the structure, up ladders, some of which were built to resemble ladders used by the Sinagua, and explore the cool, dark interior rooms.
Today, though, visitors must look from afar at the remains of an ancient civilization that has long since disappeared across the sands of time.
