Cliff Palace occupies a huge crescent-shaped cave on the east side of
Cliff Canyon. The cave itself measures 325 feet across the front and its
greatest depth is just over 100 feet. The ruin covers the entire floor
of the cave and parts of it rise to the cave roof. The ancient builders
made no effort to alter the cave to fit their needs. They simply made
their structures conform to natural contours and when seen under certain
conditions of light the houses seem almost to be part of the cliff
itself.
Because of its location visitors are able to get better views of Cliff
Palace than of any of the other cliff dwellings. Several points on the
opposite rim of the canyon offer striking distant views and the high
cliffs at each end of the cave are perfectly located for spectacular
closeups.
Seen from any angle Cliff Palace is a magnificent structure and visitors
sometimes have difficulty in believing that it is real. Here in the
midst of a vast wilderness of canyons is this great ruin, sheltered for
seven centuries by the enormous cave. It is a strange setting for the
ancient city and it has an unreal quality for visitors who see it for
the first time.
Baron Nordenskiold, who saw Cliff Palace in 1891, felt something of this
when he told of his first view of the ruin in his book, “The Cliff
Dwellers of the Mesa Verde.”
“In a long, but not very deep branch of Cliff Canyon, a wild and gloomy
gorge named Cliff Palace Canyon, lies the largest of the ruins on the
Mesa Verde, the Cliff Palace. Strange and indescribable is the
impression on the traveler, when, after a long and tiring ride through
the boundless monotonous pinon forest, he suddenly halts on the brink of
the precipice, and in the opposite cliff beholds the ruins of the Cliff
Palace, framed in the massive vault of rock above and in a bed of sunlit
cedar and pinon trees below. This ruin well deserves its name, for with
its round towers and high walls rising out of the heaps of stones deep
in the mysterious twilight of the cavern, and defying in their sheltered
site the ravages of time, it resembles at a distance an enchanted
castle.”
[Illustration: The picture is ample proof that Cliff Palace was the
greatest architectural achievement of the Pueblo Indians of the Mesa
Verde. Without doubt, this huge ruin, sheltered for seven centuries
by its tremendous cave, gives a greater thrill to the person who
views it for the first time than any other ruin. Each cliff dwelling
has its interesting features but Cliff Palace, with its great size
and impressive setting, stirs the imagination more than any of the
others.]