Taos

A second, more famous Pueblo than the Tyuonyi pueblo of Bandalier is the village at Taos. This group of structures is known to be continuously inhabited since 1000 A.D. It is the oldest continuously occupied structures in the United States. It was recently added to the UN's World Heritage list of important historical sites, joining such notable monuments as the Pyramids and the Taj Mahal.

The Taos Pueblo sits at the foot of impressive mountains that provide a permanent water source. These buildings are about 200 miles north and east of the canyon caves I first described. The Pueblo is constructed of sun-dried adobe bricks and wooden logs, with a coating of mud as a protective plaster.

(Mouse over some of the photos to reveal a roll-over image)

The Pueblo is constructed of sun-dried adobe bricks and wooden logs, with a coating of mud as a protective plaster. The adobe bricks are made of mud, water, and straw which acts as a binder that holds the brick together.

The pueblo is known to have inspired the southwestern architecture. Homes are passed on from generation to generation by each family. Today, the natives are responsible for maintaining and preserving their respective homes and hornos. The maintenance includes plastering with adobe, roof repair, and woodwork.

The drying racks like the ones shown in the photo above were used seasonally to dry meats, berries, and maize (corn).

The native oven known as "horno" is built outside of the house (photo below). It is made of the same adobe brick materials used to build their houses. To this day, these hornos are used by the women to baked breads and pies. First a fire is built with cedar wood. When the fire burns out, the ashes are removed and the oven is put inside the horno and covered until the bread is cooked to perfection. The insulation is pretty good and keeps the heat going for about 1.5 hours.

For the first 900 years, these buildings had no doors or windows. They were built primarily as a defense against raids by nomadic tribes. There were four 4 watchtowers which are all gone now, placed at each corner of the pueblo to help guard agains enemy raids. When an attack was launched, the Pueblo people would retreat to the tops of the buildings using a series of wooden ladders, which they would then pull up after them. The raiders could not breach the walls, nor easily climb up. The valuable stockpiles of food and clothing remained safely inside, reached only by holes in the roofs of the houses. Today, there are visible remnants of adobe walls that served as a barrier to protect their people from enemy tribes.

By the late 1800's, the nomadic tribes had been chased away by the US cavalry, and the arrival of the railroad made glass windows and manufactured doors available to the Pueblo. They made the practical decision that their buildings would be more comfortable if they added doors and windows. Otherwise, the buildings pictured here are pretty much unchanged for many hundreds of years.

While some tribe members still live in these buildings selling Native American jewelry, art, and baked goods to tourists, the majority of the tribe live in more conventional houses outside the Pueblo. As our tour guide remarked, it's a lot more comfortable living in a modern house, with hot water, plumbing, and TV. So the old Pueblo is primarily a museum today.

The "High Road to Taos."

The entrance fee is $10 per head plus an extra $5 if you wish to take photographs inside the pueblo. Take note that photography is not allowed on feast days! There is no fee for the 20-minute tour. The tour guides depend on donations or "tips" from tourists.

On a slightly different note, the town of Taos boasts of 1,000 years of history, good restaurants, bed & breakfast inns, art galleries, the Taos Ski Valley Resort, and village shops. The ski resort is only 19 miles from the Town of Taos.

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