With a cataclysm of fire and ash, the earth began preparing a home for the Ancestral Pueblo people more than one million years before they arrived. The eruption of Valles Caldera in Northern New Mexico rained cinders over a 1,500 square mile area and created ash flows up to 1,000 feet thick. The ash eventually cooled into a soft rock, called tuff, suitable for carving into the cliff-side dwellings found at Bandelier National Park.
Using hand tools, the Ancestral Pueblo people enlarged natural holes in the rock to form “caveate” shelters, often accessed by ladders. In some instances, they also constructed apartment-like facades along the cliff wall.
Everywhere Once 