CHIMNEY ROCK
-- MAJOR LUNAR STANDSTILL --
2. How Could The Great House Capture The Moon And The Stars?
Even without the written word, the Chacoans left clues in the very fabric of their Great House Pueblo. The Great House Pueblo is located on the closest patch of ground to the twin pillars, on the highest level area above the valley floor 1,000 feet below. The difficulty of carrying stone and tree trunks and earth and water up to this place, and of keeping its people fed and warm and supplied with water, argues powerfully that this was an important place to be. The question of how they built this impressive structure may provide the most intriguing information of all. Architecturally, the long walls of the building are not parallel. The northerly east-west walls line up with a small basin carved in solid bedrock 2000 feet southwest of and below the Great House and its little mountain top. If you stand at the stone basin and look at the northerly wall of the Great House at the time of summer solstice, you will see that the Sun rises centered on this wall. Viewed from this same stone basin, the southerly point on the Great House lines up to a spot in the sky where the Crab Nebula Supernova appeared for over 3 weeks around July 4 in the year AD 1054.
In addition to its alignments with the Crab nebula Supernova and the summer solstice sunrise, the Great House Pueblo connects the narrow gap between the rock spires with the rising Moon during the Major Lunar Standstill. It stands at the only spot where the Moonrise can be seen at the peak of the 18.61-year cycle. By themselves, these facts can't prove that the Great House Pueblo was specifically constructed to celebrate the Sun or stars or the lunar standstill. But they do imply that the Chimney Rock people were sky watchers. They observed, they remembered, and they may have captured sky cycles and events by linking their buildings to them, through natural features and architectural alignments.
The gap between Companion Rock (left spire) and Chimney Rock (right spire) frames the rising of the moon during the Major Lunar Standstill, 2004-2008, as seen from the northwestern edge of the Great House Pueblo.
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If Chimney Rock mesa was the center of a place dedicated to the watching of the Moon, there were also sites and places nearby that saw other celestial events and cycles. The view from a small structure along the eastern cliff edge below the twin spires, called the "Sun Tower" by Dr. Malville, provides a day-to-day solar calendar as the sun rises over the sharp mountain peaks and valleys of the eastern horizon. Across the Piedra River to the west, the high, long cliff of Peterson Ridge affords an eastward view that captures the two Chimney Rock towers in profile as the Sun rises between them. From north to south along the cliff, the first rays of the rising Sun fall on a series of buildings and mark the days from late January through the Summer Solstice in June, before beginning the return trip to the north and the Winter Solstice.
Sunrise from a site along the edge of Petersen Ridge above the Piedra River. There are numerous buildings along this rim, each of which is touched by the sunrise between the rock pillars on different days of the year - in effect, a perfect solar calendar marking every sunrise from January through November.
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Next Lunar Standstill Article
1. What Happens During The Major Standstill Of The Moon?
3. What Will The Moon Do At Chimney Rock In 2004 - 2008?
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Hours of Operation: In-Season May 15 - September 30, Daily 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Guided Walking Tour Schedule: 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 1:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m.
Location: 3 miles South of Hwy 160 on Hwy 151 (map)
Mailing Address: Chimney Rock Interpretive Program, P.O. Box 1662, Pagosa Springs, CO 81147
Phone: (970)883-5359 Visitor's Cabin In-season, (970)264-2287 Leave Message Off-season
E-mail: chimneyrock@chimneyrockco.org
Download Chimney Rock Brochure
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