The Neighborhood
You can see Montezuma Castle and Castle A from here. If you look closely at the Cliffside, you might spot other ledges and caves used by the Sinagua.
The Sinagua people who made their homes here may have been a closely-knit community of families and friends. Even though the trappings of civilization change over time, people's social needs don't. Take a moment to imagine busy villagers doing their daily chores, perhaps chatting about the weather, crops, an upcoming hunt, or a recent death in the community.
Mysteriously, the neighborhood began to break up sometime around A.D. 1400. Within 50 years, Montezuma Castle was completely deserted.
Mysterious Departures
Life must have been good. The Sinagua farmed beside Beaver Creek, and lived in their large, carefully constructed villages for 300 years. It's obvious they came to stay, and built to last - yet sometime in the 1400s, they mysteriously began to leave.
Could the reason have been disease? Drought? Overpopulation, resulting in scarce farmland and game? Invasion, or inter-group strife? The breakup of trade networks?
No one really knows why they left, or where they went - but Hopi Indian legends and lifeways suggest the Sinagua may have joined them on their mesas to the southeast.
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