Nalakihu-Citadel Trail, Wupatki National Monument, Arizona

15 CENTS IF YOU TAKE THIS BOOKLET HOME
WUPATKI NATIONAL MONUMENT ARIZONA
11th Ed.—4-76—12M
Nalakihu as seen from the south.
Wupatki National Monument is one of nearly 300 areas administered by the National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior. These include magnificent areas set aside for their scenic, scientific, and historical values, and they belong to you and are a part of your heritage as American citizens.
The National Park Service has the responsibility of preserving the Parks and Monuments in their natural, unspoiled condition and of making them available for your enjoyment in such a manner as to leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment and inspiration of future generations. In order to achieve this high purpose, such destructive activities as woodcutting, hunting, grazing, mining and even flower-picking are prohibited. We hope you will join us in protecting Wupatki National Monument by taking only pictures and inspiration, and leaving only footprints and goodwill.
HELP KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL
This booklet will guide you through Nalakihu (nah-LAH-kee-hoo), the small excavated surface pueblo near the parking area, and the Citadel, the large fortified, unexcavated structure on top of the butte. The trail is short and will lead you around to the rear of the Citadel, passing a large limestone sink, and to the top of the butte, where you may obtain a magnificent view of the surrounding country and see many other ruins from this vantage point. Numbered stakes on the trail correspond to numbered paragraphs in this leaflet, which will assist you in your understanding of this area and its early people.
We ask that you please keep off the ruin walls, and do not remove any pottery fragments, rocks, plants or other material from the area. Thank you.
This unexcavated, rectangular pithouse structure was of a type used by some of the inhabitants of the area prior to A.D. 1125.
Surface masonry architecture was not adopted by this tribe (archeologists call them the Sinagua—see-NAH-wah) until the early 1100s at which time their neighbors to the north, a tribe which scientists named the Anasazi (the Old People), introduced above-ground masonry structures to this region.