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The Incredible Ancient Cliff Dwellings 

By MADAyuMadyan | Environmental Graffiti

Long before there were high-rise buildings and residential skyscrapers, people still managed to live far above ground, at sometimes dizzying heights. Like modern city inhabitants, these ancestors of ours enjoyed pleasant breezes and great views, not to mention the feeling of safety that comes with living somewhere relatively inaccessible.

The Gila Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico. Photo: Richard Ondrovic.

Cliff dwellings have existed in many different parts of the world, and it’s not hard to see why they might have appealed to people. Apart from the benefits just mentioned, in many cases basic homes could be made simply by utilizing the existing walls and roofs of caves. Rock could be tunnelled into rather than having to be carved out in great quantities for use as building materials.

Let’s take a look at 10 places where these dwellings can be found, and while doing so learn a little about the people who chose to live there - and in some cases still do.

Bandiagara Escarpment, Dogon Country, Mali

Photo: Håvard Solstad

There have been human inhabitants in this region of present-day Mali since Palaeolithic times. It is now known as the “Land of the Dogons,” but among those who earlier made their homes in the steep Bandiagara Escarpment were the mysterious Tellem people. 

The Tellem were pygmies, sometimes called “small red people,” who built their abodes around the bottom of the cliff but also straight into the rock wall. Around the 1300s, the Tellem were replaced - or assimilated - by the Dogons, who still live along the cliffs and even use some original Tellem buildings such as the granaries. 

Some Mali people today say that the Tellem had magical powers and could fly; perhaps their lofty houses contributed to these stories.

Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico, USA

Photo: Jami Dwyer

When noted anthropologist Adolph Bandelier (after whom the Bandelier National Monument is named) visited these New Mexican cliff dwellings in 1880, he exclaimed, “It is the grandest thing I ever saw.” 

Ancient peoples made these high locations their homes by tunnelling further into the canyon walls where there were naturally occurring cavities in the volcanic rock, while other buildings were constructed along the bottom of the canyon. 

Ancestral Pueblo people had made permanent homes here by 1150 CE. Artefacts found also suggest that early inhabitants were involved in a trade network that extended down to Mexico. Interestingly, when enemies attacked, the people living in the dwellings could pull up ladders - a little like a drawbridge being lifted in a castle.

Uçhisar, Cappadocia, Turkey

Photo: zolakoma

It is believed that people began carving homes in the rocks of Cappadocia, Turkey as many as 4,000 years back. At Cappadocia’s highest point stands the town of Uçhisar. And the pinnacle of the town, known as Uçhisar Castle, contains within its rock a maze of rooms, passages and stairs, some of which are no longer accessible. 

It is hypothesized that towns such as Uçhisar had a network of hidden tunnels for defense purposes, although this has not been proven. Yet even without access to some secret passages, there are plenty of other underground nooks and crannies to explore in this beehive-like locale.

Manitou Cliff Dwellings, Colorado, USA

Photo: Quinn Dombrowski

You might think that cliff dwellings would be impossible to move, built as they are into, or at least against, the side of rock faces. However, those dwellings at Manitou Springs, Colorado were transferred from their original site a few hundred miles away. 

Ancient Pueblo people built them at their former location in the Four Corners region, which they inhabited from 1200 BCE to 1300 CE. They could surely have never imagined that one day, in the early 1900s, their homes would be relocated to become an outdoor museum, which they remain to this day. They are well preserved at their current site and can be easily explored by the public.

Gila Cliff Dwellings, New Mexico, USA

Photo: Richard Ondrovic

Given its steep and rugged geography, the country around these cliff dwellings in the Gila Wilderness of southwest New Mexico may initially seem inhospitable. However, the Mogollon people who lived there at the end of the 13th century had access to water, farming and hunting land, wood, and shelter. 

The cliff here was volcanically formed, and the Mogollan people built their homes into five existing caves. The dwellings are all joined together, and 46 rooms have so far been distinguished. 

The site was discovered by a European emigrant in 1878, and in the early 20th century several mummified human bodies were also found. One of these, an infant mummy named “Zeke,” was put in the care of the Smithsonian, although the rest were taken by private collectors.

Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings, Colorado, USA

Photo: Ben FrantzDale

The cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde are part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site and are considered among the best-preserved and most important sites of their kind in North America. 

As with the Bandelier and Manitou cliff dwellings, the Mesa Verde villages were inhabited by Ancestral Pueblo peoples. Here, between 1190 and 1300 CE, the Puebloans built a variety of structures and villages, ranging from the 200-chamber Cliff Palace, to single-room storage spaces. 

The dwellings were constructed underneath the overhangs of the cliffs, and the people lived in them while continuing to farm the land on top. The occupants also enjoyed the advantages of natural climate control: the structures were warmed by the sun in the colder months but were prevented from getting too hot in the summer because they were shielded from direct sun.

Puye Cliff Dwellings, New Mexico, USA

Photo: Mike Fisher

Puye Cliffs was also home to the Ancient Puebloans, who lived here from the 10th century to 1580 CE. The site consists of two distinct levels of cave and cliff dwellings set into the rock face, plus additional structures at the top of the drop. 

The first level runs along the bottom of the mesa and is more than a mile long, while the second measures roughly 2,100 feet in length. Originally containing approximately 740 chambers, the cliff dwellings were part of the biggest Ancient Pueblo settlement on the Pajarito Plateau - also the location of the Bandelier dwellings. 

The descendants of the Puye Cliffs occupants are still around to this day, living 10 miles from the site, in Santa Clara Pueblo.

Guyaju Cave Dwellings, Yanqing District, China

Photo: pfctdayelise

The origins of China’s Guyaju cliff dwellings are shrouded in mystery, as there are no records of the people who created them. However, they are thought to be over 1,000 years old and may have been the work of the ethnic Xiyi people, of whom little is known. 

The dwellings were carved into existing rock and are easily the biggest ruins of their kind ever discovered in China: the precipitous cliff features 170 caves with more than 350 chambers. Relics such as stone bedding, air vents and rainwater collection devices have been found, as well as caves that housed horses.

Kandovan Village, East Azerbaijan, Iran

Photo: Martijn Munneke

Unlike the other dwellings so far on this list, some of the cave homes in Kandovan are still inhabited today, over 700 years after they were built. The area’s distinctive formations, which look a bit like termite mounds, are naturally occurring - volcanic debris having been shaped by the elements to form the cone-shaped, cavity-filled formations. 

The caves were hollowed out further to make the homes, with the rock sufficiently soft to be carved into yet solid enough to be structurally sound. As with the Mesa Verde dwellings, those at Kandovan remain warm in the winter yet cool in the warmer months. 

But you can see for yourself: there’s a five-star hotel here, so tourists can gain a sense of what life was like in the dwellings, albeit laced in luxury.

Sassi di Matera, Basilicata, Italy

Photo: Paola Sucato

The name “Sassi di Matera” means “stones of Matera” and refers to the cave dwellings spread out below the rim of a ravine in the southern Italian city of Matera. People have been living in the caves here since the Palaeolithic era, and it may even be among Italy’s earliest human settlements. 

The dwellings are dug directly into the rock, and the higher-quality tools of the Bronze and Iron Ages made it even easier for the homes to be shaped. Over the years, walls were sealed off, and rainwater and sewage were regulated by nearby canals - yet living here remained an unsanitary experience until as recently as the 1950s. 

These days, a number of the caves have been renovated and converted into restaurants and hotels as well as comfortable housing.

The Uçhisar Cliff Dwellings in Turkey. Photo: zolakoma.

Nowadays, many of the ancient cliff dwellings around the world have been abandoned in favour of modern accommodation. But for those with an interest in archaeology or history, their ruins make for very interesting exploration.

Article Sources (and more information): 
1. Tellem 
2. Bandiagara Escarpment 
3. Ancient Pueblo Peoples 
4. Bandelier National Monument 
5. The Anasazi or "Ancient Pueblo" 
6. Uçhisar 
7. Cappadocia - Cliff-dwelling through the Ages 
8. Manitou Cliff Dwellings 
9. Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument 
10. Mesa Verde National Park 
11. Cliff Dwellings 
12. Puye Cliff Dwellings 
13. Pajarito Plateau 
14. Guyaju Ruins 
15. The caves homes of Guyaju, China 
16. Village Carved Out Of Stone - Kandovan 
17. Italy’s secret caves: the sassi of Matera 
18. Sassi di Matera 
19. Sassi Review

Top image: The Bandiagara Cliff Dwellings in Mali. Photo: Martin Wegmann.

(Post Source: Environmental Graffiti. Edited).

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Underwater Wonders Of the WORLD

Submerged Cities: 7 Underwater Wonders Of the WORLD
By JohnnyAdam | Steph, Web Urbanist

Sucked into the sea by earthquakes or intentionally flooded to create dams, ancient and contemporary cities lurk just beneath the surface in bodies of water all over the world. Some, like Alexandria in Egypt, represent some of the most significant archaeological findings in recent history; others are more mysterious in origin. The eerie remains of these 7 submerged cities will reveal their secrets only to those who can swim through their underwater streets in scuba suits.

Cleopatra’s Alexandria, Egypt

Images via: smithsonian, archdaily

The Alexandria of ancient Egyptian ruler Cleopatra was lost for 1,600 years, with tales of its existence seeming like no more than legends. But a team of marine archaeologists stumbled across the ruins off the shores of the modern-day Alexandria in 1998, unearthing vast monuments still standing after all this time. The city was likely taken by the sea as a result of earthquakes. Historians have found columns, sphinxes, statues, temples and the foundations of a palace that likely belonged to Cleopatra herself.

Alexandria is considered one of the richest archaeological sites in the world. In addition to these vast stone monuments, coins and everyday objects have been discovered, painting a picture of a city described more than 2,000 years ago by Greek geographers and historians. Recent dives have unearthed some of the major scenes from the lives of Cleopatra and Marc Antony as well as statues of the queen’s son and father.

Pavlopetri, Greece

Images via: university of nottingham

Believed to have been submerged off the coast of Greece by a series of earthquakes around 1,000 BCE, Pavlopetri is the oldest-known underwater archaeological town site in the world. Unlike other underwater ruins, which are incomplete or difficult to verify as actual man-made structures, Pavlopetri has a complete town plan, including streets, architecture and tombs. It consists of about 15 structures, submerged about 10-13 feet underwater.

Discovered in 1967, the site has been routinely explored by the University of Cambridge and the University of Nottingham, the latter of which has an on-going excavation project to find and date artefacts found on the ocean floor.

Port Royal, Jamaica

Images via: wikimedia commons, nautilarch.org

Tranquil tropical seas have silenced what was once “the most wicked and sinful city in the world,” according to those who travelled there during its heyday as pirates’ favourite party city. Port Royal, Jamaica was famous for its booze, its prostitutes and its raging all-night entertainment. As one of the largest European cities in the New World, it was also home to a number of very wealthy plantation owners. It was devastated by an estimated 7.5-magnitude earthquake in June of 1692, which sucked it into the ground on its unstable sand foundations and killed about 2,000 people. Its ruin was seen by the pious as retribution for all that had occurred there.

Forty feet of water now separate the remains of Port Royal from the surface of the sea; though it was still visible from above until the early 20th century, it has continued to sink and much of it is now covered with sand. It, too, has been an incredible site for archaeological exploration, revealing artefacts in near-perfect condition, like a pocket watch from 1686 stopped at 11:46.

Dwarka, Gulf of Cambay, India

Images via: city of dwaraka

Could the undeniably geometric ruins in India’s Gulf of Cambay be the lost city of Lord Krishna? Many Indians believe so, designating Dwarka as an important site for Hindu pilgrimage. The ruins are located just off the coast of modern-day Dwarka, one of the seven oldest cities in India. The ancient Dwarka was a planned city built on the banks of the Gomati river but was eventually deserted and submerged into the sea, as documented in texts like the Mahabharata and Purana, though some experts maintain that it was mythological.

As the story goes, Lord Krishna had a beautiful and prosperous city built, with 70,000 palaces made of gold, silver and other precious metals. It was his death that supposedly sent Dwarka sinking into the sea.

The ruins, discovered in 2000 and investigated with acoustic techniques, are known as the Gulf of Khambat Cultural Complex. They’re 131 feet beneath the surface. One of the artefacts dredged up by scientists was dated around 7500 BCE, which could support the theories that it is, in fact, the ancient Dwarka.

The Pyramids of Yonaguni-Jima, Japan

Images via: wikimedia commons, living moon

Experts can’t seem to agree whether the Yonaguni Monument, a strange geometric formation found off the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, is natural or man-made. But looking at photos of the terraced stone, cut into triangle shapes in some areas, it’s difficult to imagine how it could have been created by nature. The site is a popular diving location despite strong currents, especially because it tends to be a congregation point for hammerhead sharks. 

Rising 250 feet from the sea floor, the Yonaguni Monument is not a series of stacked stones; rather, it’s a single construct connected to the underlying rock mass. Some divers believe they have found traces of drawings and other markings upon it. If this structure really is man-made, it would had to have been constructed during the last ice age, around 10,000 BCE, when the sea level was 130 feet lower than it is today. Geologists, however, argue that the geometric shapes could have been formed by fractures caused by earthquakes.

The Lost Villages of Ontario, Canada

Images via: lostvillages.ca

Though the ancient ruins tend to get more attention, they’re not the only vestiges of civilization to be found under bodies of water throughout the world. More recently, many towns have been submerged for the creation of artificial lakes or re-routing of rivers. Ten communities in the Canadian province of Ontario are now permanently submerged under the Saint Lawrence River, after the creation of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1958. These ‘Lost Villages of Ontario’ are likely still mostly intact underwater, and in some parts, sidewalks and building foundations can be seen. 

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Some components of the towns were salvaged before the submersion and are on display at a nearby museum, including tombstones from a cemetery - though the bodies are still in the ground where they were buried before the water was allowed to pour through the streets.

Lion City of Quiandao Lake, China

Images via: love these pics

China’s submerged Lion City may be the most spectacular underwater ruins of the world, at least until more of Alexandria is explored. It’s located about 85-131 feet beneath the surface of Thousand Island Lake (Qiandao Lake), in an area that was intentionally flooded in the 1950s to create a dam. Lion City (Shi Cheng) was built during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-200 CE) and measures about 62 football fields in area. It’s unclear why the Chinese would have flooded such spectacular historical structures, which are covered in dramatic relief sculptures.

In 2001, divers discovered 265 arches in the nearly perfectly preserved ruins, which have since become a tourist attraction. A dive operator based in Shanghai offers weekend trips to explore the submerged city, and several concepts have been submitted to make it more accessible, including transparent floating tunnels.

(Source: Web Urbanist. Edited).

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