Montezuma's Castle

On Friday we decided to see Montezuma's Castle before we went to the "Out Of Africa Wildlife Park". Since it was off season we had one of their volunteer's all to our self. He walked around with us for about an hour and gave us some really interesting history about the people who lived there. And we thought we were just going to take a picture and leave! Our tour guide had actually been inside the castle himself. They used to allow visitors access, but had to discontinue in 1951 because of extensive damage. The castle was built by the Sinagua women about 700 years ago, but was discovered and excavated in 1933. It was abandoned in the 1400's, maybe because of a draught or other unknown reasons. The castle is a mistaken name, it actually was built and abandoned 100 years before Montezuma was born. It has five-stories, 20 rooms and housed about 50 people. It's location helped protect the people from floods and enemies, but they had to use ladders made out of nearby trees to get in and out. A larger castle built nearby housed about 200 people, but it burnt down because it was made of mostly wood. You can still see the back wall of the castle in the cliff and see where rooms were.