HOVENWEEP NATIONAL MONUMENT

national monument in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah, U.S., 25 mi (40 km) west of Cortez, Colo., established in 1923. It consists of six groups of pre-Columbian Indian ruins: the Square Tower Canyon Cluster and the Cajon Canyon Group in Utah; and the Holly (or Keeley) Canyon Group, the Hackberry Canyon Group, Cutthroat Castle, and Goodman Point in Colorado. Their square, oval, and D-shaped towers are excellent examples of Pueblo Indian defensive architecture of the period 11001300 AD. Some of the towers probably served as storage bins; others, on the edges of cliffs, apparently were used as lookout points; still others were built over kivas (underground ceremonial chambers). Hovenweep is a Ute Indian word meaning deserted valley. Access to the monument, which covers 785 ac (318 ha), is by graded dirt roads.