Ancient dwellings of Pueblo peoples

Hundreds of Ancestral Puebloan dwellings are found across the American Southwest. With almost all constructed well before 1492 CE, these Puebloan towns and villages are located throughout the geography of the Southwest.

Many of these dwellings included various defensive positions, like the high steep mesas such as at the ancient Mesa Verde complex or the present-day Acoma "Sky City" Pueblo. Earlier than 900 CE progressing past the 13th century, the population complexes appear to have been major cultural centers for the Pueblo peoples. There were also settlements scattered throughout the region of varying sizes.

Ancestral Pueblo peoples spanned Northern Arizona and New Mexico, Southern Colorado and Utah, and a part of Southeastern Nevada. They primarily lived north of the Patayan, Sinagua, Hohokam, Trincheras, Mogollon, and Casas Grandes cultures of the Southwest and south of the Fremont culture of the Great Basin .

There are 21 federally recognized pueblos in the United States today. Rio Grande pueblos are known as eastern Pueblos; Zuni, Hopi, and sometimes Acoma and Laguna are known as western Pueblos.

The dwellings of the Pueblo peoples are located throughout the American Southwest and north central Mexico. The American states of New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona all have evidence of Pueblo peoples' dwellings; the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora do as well.