Nalakihu-Citadel Trail
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.
1
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.
Reconstruction of two types of pithouses found in this region. Note the two methods of roofing and the ventilator at right.
Ground plan of Nalakihu.