This UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mexico is a large complex of Native American buildings dating back over 1,000 years. Set on ancient trading routes, these Casas Grandes (large houses)—or Paquimé in the native language—thrived for centuries in the Chihuahuan Desert, trading goods between communities like Casa Grande, Chaco and Mesa Verde, in what is now the US, with Tenochtitlán and the Yucatán in Mexico. Culturally the natives here are considered Mogollon, like those who built the Gila Cliff Dwellings.
Paquimé is built on the ‘Chaco Meridian’, the same north-south longitude line with the great kivas—holy sites—of Chaco and Aztec Ruins in New Mexico. Why build cultural centers on the same longitude beyond line of sight? That’s a good question. Also, how?
Latitude lines (west to east) are relatively easy to calculate by measuring the angle of the apex of the sun or the North Star against a calendar. But calculating longitude to this degree of accuracy (~108.95º West) requires a time piece. Line of sight techniques might explain Chaco and Aztec being built on the same meridian, but not Paquimé, which is 400 miles away over rough terrain. So, like the Ancient Greeks, the ancient Native American original builders here must have been able to calculate time to within a minute or so. Perhaps, like the Greeks, they used a water clock—which works like a large, stationary hourglass—, as the natives here were extremely sophisticated users of irrigation systems, as well as calendars and geometry. That would explain how.
If you sat outside your home all night to watch the stars on the same day every year, the stars would rise and fall at the same time each year. You could even tell stories about Gods or great people moving through the heavens, like the Ancient Greeks did about constellations. And if you knew the day’s story well, you would be able to name which constellation would rise first. But if you tried telling the same stories on the same day but in a different town or state, the timing would be different. Only if you are on the same longitudinal north-south line does the timing stay the same and keep your narrative aligned with the movement of the stars. If the ancient people told such stories about the stars, that would explain why they built these kivas on the Chaco meridian.
Some Americans wrongly view Native Americans as separate tribes that were always at war with each other and didn’t build anything. I think it goes back to the US War on Native America, where the military used ‘divide and conquer’ as a tactic and spread misleading and demeaning descriptions of Native American culture. I was told by a docent at Hopewell Culture quite confidently that there was no evidence that parrots were traded as far north as Ohio despite obvious signs they were. And I was repeatedly told in the Midwest that natives never built any permanent structures, even nearby the native pit dwellings used by early settlers or near giant ancient mounds of a native city larger than London at the time.
Paquimé offers proof that parrots and macaws were traded from the jungles of southern Mexico to people in the north, as the birds could not survive the desert and were kept in pens and bred here. Bird shaped sculptures & mounds, elaborate feather designs, parrot & macaw bones, and aviaries have been found here. Despite being burned, Paquimé rebuilt and thrived, demonstrating that peaceful trading was the norm. A complex system of dykes, irrigation canals and cisterns were built here to sustain folks in the harsh dry climate.
This is a fascinating and important site that can easily be visited by Americans on an overnight trip. The excellent on site museum has information in English on every exhibit, as do the signs throughout the site. Fees were waived on the day I visited, and I found an atmospheric hotel with a good breakfast just a few minutes from the entrance. Without a single delay, I crossed and got my TIP at Santa Teresa, charged once and returned by Tornillo the next day. (There’s also an Evergo charger at the Sueco intersection, but you need the app and an adapter). The town of Casas Grandes is quite safe and quaint, and everyone I met was friendly and welcoming.
Here are previous my road trips to Baja and to Mexico City.
