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Chaco Canyon
Chaco Canyon in New Mexico is a complex of great stone buildings raised between 850 and 1150 by the ancestors of today's Pueblo peoples. Chaco is a puzzle because the canyon could not feed the population its buildings imply; food, timber and pottery were carried in over long distances. More than two hundred thousand beams were brought from mountain forests up to eighty kilometres away, without draught animals and without wheels. Interpretations range from pilgrimage centre to trading hub. The system was abandoned during a prolonged drought in the twelfth century, and the people moved to today's Pueblo communities, which endure.
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