Something mysterious and unsettling has happened in the Shadows of Chaco Canyon

Winter Solstice: The winter solstice marks the day when the sun is at its lowest arc in the sky, giving us the shortest day and the most amount of night.

Also known as Singing Rock, Fajada Butte is home to a unique and compelling celestial marker.  Three large rock slabs on a ledge facing east-southeast have been arranged to channel the noon-time sun.  A concentric circle about the size of a dinner plate has been carved into the cliff face behind the rock slabs.  On the winter solstice, two light daggers bracket the engraved spiral.  This marker is unusual in that it tracks the sun during midday instead of at sunrise and sunset as most astronomical markers.  The movement of the light daggers adds an additional sense of drama to an impressive astronomical event.

Chaco Canyon
has a subtle, patient beauty, a spiritual quietness that welcomes those willing to adapt. It is a special place of Native American spirituality, a place where the earth and sky touch, where the natural order of the heavens is honored on the earth below.

Between 800 A.D. and 1130 A.D., the people of Chaco Canyon constructed Great Houses, built grand roadways, and erected solar and lunar markers that are still accurate today. Now only their ancestors remain amidst the ruins as guardians of the magnificent structures they left behind.

Learn more about the CHARACTERS in "Shadows of Chaco Canyon."