Thank you. Post 212126 is Pueblo Alto at Chaco Canyon. It's actually up out of the canyon a half mile or so N of Pueblo Bonito. 212116 is on the Ute Reservation a little S of Cortez Colorado on Mancos Canyon Road. The tower behind the jail is called Chimney Rock. IIRC there is a sign that tells the history but like a dumbass I did not shoot a pic of it. 212117 and 212119 are Hovenweep National Monument. It is just a few miles into Utah about 30 miles N of 4 Corners. I've been driving past the sign to Hovenweep since the 80's always thinking "We'll have to stop by there next time". Not real big but very cool. 212121 and 212122 are Pueblo Bonito at Chaco. 212123 and 212124 are Chetro Ketl at Chaco.
I'm a self-taught mason with plenty left to learn and am really amazed at the quality of work done at places like Chaco, Hovenweep, Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelly, etc. The Chaco great houses were built from about AD850 to 1200 or so and many of the rocks used at "downtown Chaco" (Bonito, Chetro Ketl, etc.) were taken from the canyon rim, up around Pueblo Alto, so they had to lower or carry the rock down a cliff that is 100' or so tall to get to the sites.
If the archaeologists are correct, the natives cut the sandstone with tools made from harder rock like quartz, but the clifftop sandstone at Chaco is not all that soft because it's mineralized. Archaeology may be informed speculation, but there is a shit ton not known about places like Chaco. I tend to think that the stuff written by Stephen Lekson are most likely to be the truth, but it's just a wild assed guess on my part. Lekson says that the great houses were the palaces of the elite. Lekson says that the small-to-mid size kivas (round rooms) were the living space of the elite and the rectangular rooms were mostly storage. He also says that the simpler construction used in the communities cited a short ways away from the great houses were the homes of working class farmers and masons. A couple of pictures of the small house community masonry is shown below. These are near one of the great kivas (Casa Rinconada) that sits across the wash from downtown Chaco.
one hell of a mess , I got to say INCOMING for real 
