梅萨维德国家公园的方形塔楼，美国科罗拉多州 Square Tower House in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado (© lightphoto/Getty Images)

梅萨维德国家公园的方形塔楼，美国科罗拉多州 Square Tower House in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado (© lightphoto/Getty Images)

普韦布洛城堡 Castle of the Ancestral Puebloans

Square Tower House in Mesa Verde National Park

We continue our celebration of National Park Week (through April 24)–and the UNESCO International Day for Monuments and Sites–with a visit to the impressive Square Tower House in Mesa Verde National Park. Square Tower House is one of many cliff dwellings constructed by the Ancestral Puebloans in what is now the American Southwest. At 27 feet, it's the tallest structure in the park. Square Tower House is also notable for its kiva, a round, sunken room used for ceremonies. Unlike most of the ancient kivas found in the region, the kiva at Square Tower House has an intact original clay roof supported by wooden beams.

Ancestral Puebloans lived in today's Four Corners region, where the borders of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico meet at a single point. It's unclear when exactly this culture emerged, but the current consensus is that the Ancestral Puebloans appeared in this area a little more than 3,000 years ago. They're believed to have built the series of cliff dwellings for defensive reasons as various factions competed for scarce resources when the region suffered from a prolonged drought. It's thought that the changing climate eventually became so severe that it likely drove them from the cliff dwellings sometime around 1300 CE, just a century or so after construction began. Today, many of the cliff dwellings have been restored and visitors can view the homes and kivas of the builders.

梅萨维德国家公园的方形塔楼

我们继续庆祝国家公园周（至4月24日）——以及联合国教科文组织纪念物和遗址国际日——参观梅萨维德国家公园令人印象深刻的方形塔楼。方塔住宅是普埃布劳恩斯家族在现在的美国西南部建造的众多悬崖住宅之一。它高27英尺，是公园里最高的建筑。方形塔楼房屋也因其kiva而著名，kiva是一个圆形的下沉式房间，用于举行仪式。与该地区发现的大多数古代基瓦不同，广场塔楼的基瓦房屋有一个完整的原始粘土屋顶，由木梁支撑。

普韦布劳恩斯的祖先生活在今天的四角地区，科罗拉多州、犹他州、亚利桑那州和新墨西哥州的边界在这里交汇。目前尚不清楚这种文化是什么时候出现的，但目前的共识是，祖先普韦布洛人在3000多年前就出现在这个地区。据信，当该地区遭受长期干旱时，各派系为了争夺稀缺资源，出于防御原因，他们修建了一系列悬崖住宅。据认为，气候变化最终变得如此严重，可能在公元1300年左右的某个时候，也就是建筑开始后的一个世纪左右，将他们赶出悬崖住宅。如今，许多悬崖上的住宅已经修复，游客可以看到建筑商的房屋和地窖。