Chaco Canyon, the archaeological area within Chaco Culture National Historical Park, is probably the most popular and visited archaeological zone in the U.S. Southwest.
Here is a list of the most famous and bretahtaking Anasazi sites in Chaco Canyon, ordered from largest to smaller.
1. Chetro Ketl
U.S. National Park Service
Chetro Ketl (pronounced "Chet-row Kettle") is the site with the largest surface area (ca. 250,000 square feet) in the Chaco Culture National Historical Park. With its 400 multi-storied rooms, it has 200 rooms less than Pueblo Bonito. One of the most impressive spot of Chetro Ketl lies behind the site, in the canyon cliffs. This is the famous Jackson Staircase, a series of step carved in the cliff that lead toward the top of the Mesa and, through a system of roadways, to other Anasazi sites.
2. Pueblo Bonito
NASA
Pueblo Bonito is the second largest, but probably the most famous Great House in the Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Constructed between the 9th and 12th century A.D., it has more than 600 rooms and 35 kivas, the typical puebloan subterranean circular rooms. Pueblo Bonito was probably the political and ceremonial center of Chaco Canyon. The high desity of luxury goods, such as turquoise, cacao, and tropical bird found at Pueblo Bonito underlights its wide connections with other Southwestern centers, and the tropical areas of Mexico.
3. Peñasco Blanco
Alex Marentes
Peñasco Blanco is the third largest Great House in the Chaco Culture National Historical Park. The site lies 3 miles west of Pueblo Bonito. Visitors at Peñasco Blanco don't want to miss the examples of rock paintings on the walls not far from the site. These represent a crescent moon, a ten-pointed star, and a hand. Just below these rock paintings, a spiral-shape sign, with a sort of flaming extension, has been intepreted as the record of the passage of the Halley's comet in A.D. 1066
4. Pueblo del Arroyo
U.S. National Park Service
Pueblo del Arroyo is the fourth largest site in Chaco Culture National Historical Park. It was constructed between the 11th and the 12th century A.D. not near the canyon cliff, as almost all the other Great Houses, but near the Canyon Wash, the stream that cross the center of the canyon. Pueblo del Arroyo lack a great kiva, but can count the unique feature of a regular kiva surrounded by three concentric walls.
5. Una Vida
Wvbailey
Una Vida is the name of the fifth largest site in the Chaco Culture National Historical Park. the site lies about 3 miles east of Pueblo Bonito at the intersection of the Chaco Wash and the Fajada Wash, the main water sources of the area. Una Vida was constructed between the 9th and the 11th century A.D. Una Vida is close to a series of Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) examples of rock art and a possible solar observation point, called Piedra del Sol (Sun Stone) used to observed the summer solstice.