Yucca Cave Ruins at Canyon de Chelly
by Alexandra Till
Title
Yucca Cave Ruins at Canyon de Chelly
Artist
Alexandra Till
Medium
Photograph - Photographs - Prints - Digital Images - Cards - Posters - Photo-calendars - Photo Art
Description
© Christine Till
The Yucca Cave Ruins is visible from the from the west side of the Massacre Cave Overlook along the north rim of Canyon de Chelly National Monument near Chinle in northeast Arizona. The Yucca Cave site overlooks the area of the large Mummy Cave Ruins, though it is around the corner and not directly visible.
Yucca Cave, overlooking Canyon del Muerto, was used by the early Anasazi for storage and this particular cave was used for storing bundles of yucca and juniper bark fiber hence the name Yucca Cave. The Anasazi used yucca for weaving sandals and cordage. It is a small ruins site but it is unusual in Canyon de Chelly as it is near the canyon rim rather than near the canyon floor. Most of the ruins sites at Canyon de Chelly are near the farming fields, peach orchards and water supplies that make the floor area livable. The area near the canyon rim is very rocky but has good supplies of Pinon Pines and Utah Junipers. The cliffs below the ruins are vertical with an 800 foot drop to the canyon bottom. There is a small granary storage site to the left of the main alcove that looks particularly tricky.
Joseph Campbell, the famed student of mythology and religion, once called Canyon de Chelly "the most sacred place on Earth." Carl Jung, the Swiss psychologist, who had a few ideas about the sacred himself, concurred. He added that Canyon de Chelly, a complex of wide chasms, was the only place he knew outside of the Valley of the Nile that so truly embodied the very essence of antiquity.
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September 16th, 2013
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