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Sites bat400 has logged. View this log as a table or view the most recent logs from everyone
Castalian Springs Mounds
Trip No.3 Date Added: 28th Apr 2017
Site Type: Artificial Mound
Country: United States (The South)
Visited: Yes on 1st Jul 2006. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4
Bledsoe's Lick Mound submitted by bat400 on 29th Jun 2006. The Mississippian platform mound at Castalian Springs, Sumner County, TN (formerly Bledsoe's Lick.)
The conical mound with a flattened top was built on the west end of a broad rectangular platform. The structure is much reduced by plowing over the years. However, the ground has been undisturbed for a number of years. The property is now owned and protected by the state.
Photo by bat400, June 2006.
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Log Text: I visited in 2006 while the Middle Tennessee University was conducting a dig, not of the mound itself, but of the footprint of several buildings which were visible from the traces of postholes and (to less evidence, walls.) Very interesting. Meet Dr. Smith, who was very gracious with his time and explanations.
Cerro Sechin
Date Added: 8th Oct 2018
Site Type: Ancient Temple
Country: Peru
Visited: Yes on 3rd Sep 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4
Cerro Sechin submitted by sophs74 on 22nd Aug 2011. Carvings of a gorey prehistoric battle adorn the walls at Cerro Sechin, warriors wielding stone axes are depicted decapitating their enemies, disembodied body parts and streams of blood are carefully carved to show what a fearsome fighting force they were, Sechin Bajo, Casma, Peru... easy to reach from town, a short walk / motorbike taxi ride, great onsite museum where guide can be hired to take one to less accessible / lesser known local antiquities.
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Log Text: "Cerro" is the actual hill immediately behind where this structure was built. A path along the hillside above the building was described by our guide as being a modern structure meant to prevent erosion and landslides, but I'm not certain that this wasn't a translating error on our part.
A common theory about the building is that incised slabs of warriors and the dead were put into place as a combination of a warning to those who might oppose the Sechin power and a statement of triumph over their enemies. The depictions of dead (sacrificed?) include streams of blood flowing from missing eyes, severed heads and limbs. Combined with the slightly cartoonish presentation, I found this to be one of the more unsettling depictions of ancient violence I've seen at ancient sites, which is saying a lot.
Nearby there are half finished slabs of stone with similar engraving, but all of them have either flaws in the stone itself or actual errors in the carving (misplaced facial features, asymmetries, or just plain ugly) and appear to have been abandoned midway through the process.
A small museum is on site as well, with textiles, ceramics, and human remains from a burial. Several hairless Peruvian dogs live here in the outside area.
Chaco Culture NHP
Date Added: 12th Dec 2012
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 25th Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by bat400 on 25th May 2012. Pueblo Bonito Great House, taken from the cliff edge directly north of the site. Photo by bat400, April 2012.
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Log Text: The park is must see for anyone visiting northwest New Mexico. However, the park is in a remote area, with minimal services. (In my opinion, this is part of the experiance.)
Be sure to review the park website to properly prepare for your trip. Camping at the park and extending your visit for several days would have many rewards, but all the major sites along the paved driving loop can be visited in one long day. If you are at all fit, take one of the "back country" trails to visit one or more sites on the mesa tops surrounding the canyon and "Downtown Chaco".
Park ranger tours are available at the main sites several times a day during high season, see the website for the National Park. Inexpensive guide books are often available as you enter specific sites, or from the Visitor's Center. Wheel chair access is possible for portions of the walking trail at Pueblo Bonito, but even there the path is sand or gravel, not paved. Large chair tires or an assistant would be necessary.
Note: A sturdy passenger vehicle is adequate to cross aproximately 13 miles of unpaved, washboard roads to reach the park itself. No not use a vehicle with "low profile" tires, and call for road conditions during the winter or following any periods of rain. Locals take the dirt road at speeds that you would not think possible, and actually reaching speeds of 45-55 mph will reduce the severe impacts as your car's shock absorbers dampen out the input frequency of the roadbed. (Try this, but remember that you MUST slow on curves, when coming on rises, or whenever visiblity is degraded. Otherwise you will slide off the road or strike other vehicles or livestock.)
Chaco Culture NHP - Casa Rinconada
Date Added: 29th May 2012
Site Type: Ancient Temple
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 26th Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 4
Chaco Culture NHP - Casa Rinconada submitted by bat400 on 27th May 2012. In this view you can see the stone bench around the base of the interior wall, the many niches, and the room structure outside the kiva on the north side of the building.
Photo by bat400, April 2012.
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Log Text: This Great Kiva is isolated from the Great Houses themselves and sits on a natural rise across Chaco Wash from Pueblo del Arroyo, Pueblo Bonito, and Chetro Ketl. All of these Great Houses are clearly visible from the ridge where Casa Rinconada was built. You can walk completely around the building and into a portion of the northern antechamber.
You walk up a clearly marked trail from a parking area/trail head. Several small pueblo communittees lie to the north and east of the great kiva. You can visit them as well.
Chaco Culture NHP - Chetro Ketl
Date Added: 29th May 2012
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 26th Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4
Chaco Culture NHP - Chetro Ketl submitted by bat400 on 27th May 2012. The Great Kiva of Chetro Ketl. Aside from the missing roof and plaster, this is possible the finest preserved Great Kiva in the southwest.
Photo by bat400, April 2012.
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Log Text: None
Chaco Culture NHP - Hungo Pavi
Date Added: 29th May 2012
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 25th Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4
Chaco Culture NHP - Hungo Pavi submitted by bat400 on 27th May 2012. The interior of a room in the northeast corner of the complex. The ground floor room is almost completely filled with shifted sand and earth. The second floor room above it is marked by the line of secondary beams below it.
Photo by bat400, April 2012.
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Log Text: None
Chaco Culture NHP - Kin Kletso
Date Added: 29th May 2012
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 26th Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 5 Access 3
Chaco Culture NHP - Kin Kletso submitted by bat400 on 1st Jun 2012. View from a resting place halfway up the cliff just north of the site.
Photo by bat400, April 2012.
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Log Text: None
Chaco Culture NHP - New Alto
Date Added: 28th May 2012
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 25th Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 2
Chaco Culture NHP - New Alto submitted by bat400 on 27th May 2012. New Alto.
Photo by bat400, April 2012.
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Log Text: A large raven flew from Pueblo Alto, left, to perch on the walls of New Alto as I approached. (Dexter to my path ... had I been an ancient Roman, I might have turned around and went away...)
A little eerie, as this ruin stands on the edge of a flat sagebrush plain north of Chaco Canyon. Only a portion of the structure has walls standing above the mound that encases the majority of it. You are actually seeing the walls of the second floor of the building.
See my site log for Pueblo Alto (http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=15539) for what the trail was like to get up to New Alto from the canyon floor.
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Alto
Date Added: 1st Jun 2012
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 26th Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 2
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Alto submitted by bat400 on 27th May 2012. One of the larger standing walls of the ruin. Most of the structure has been backfilled for its protection.
Photo by bat400.
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Log Text: I decided to hike directly to the site and back using the park service trail (which also includes a loop on the mesa top with an overlook of the Chetro Ketl site and a view of the Jackson Staircase, an ancient stairway carved into the cliff.)
Pueblo Alto has had minimal excavations. The southwestern portion has the most exposed and intact portions, and the walls there show broad stone blocks separated by thin bands of tabular stone. But, the entire site can be circled, seeing the layout of the rooms and central plaza. If you feel the need to cross the mound of the rooms to the central plaza (not expressly forbidden, but definitely discouraged) please follow a path that has already been made, and don't step on the structures stones.
From the northern room blocks there are signs identifying Huerfano Mountain on the horizon in the direction of a northern Chaco road that led toward Chacoan communities on the San Jaun River.
The most difficult part of this hike (which took two and a half hours to walk to Pueblo Alta, New Alta and back, with stops for photography and viewing Pueblo Bonito from the cliff edge) was getting up on the mesa from the trailhead (and back down). From the trailhead parking area, you walk on a flat track to Kin Kletso. Then directly behind that site you go straight up the cliff, following a marked but tightly switch backed climb over boulders for about 40 feet high. The last bit of this is unsupported on the west side (sheer drop off,) but you'd really have to be flailing around to make it dangerous. At this point you can see where the trail goes up a crack behind the cliff face. Although this too is over boulders, you are in the shade and have the cliff walls on both sides until you emerge at the top, 140 feet off the canyon floor.
The trail goes over bare rock along the edge of the cliff (following small cairns) and then turns north toward the two mesa top Great Houses. You have to climb up one more terrace (again, over boulders - tough on my short legs) and then the path is very obvious, through the sage brush and clumps of wildflowers (blooming in April). The total elevation change from the canyon floor appears to be about 250 feet, but if you are a flat lander, it seems like more than that.
Follow the park guidelines and take plenty of water (even if you end up bringing some of it back with you), where a hat and decent walking shoes/boots. I would say a long sleeve cotton shirt is a must, and I also took a jacket (just in case.) The temperature was actually fairly cool, but the only shade was when you are going up the crack in the cliff, so it felt quite warm.
The park service makes this portion of the trail as easy as possible with markers at turns and occasionally placing placards by objects of interest. These include exposed fossils, two bedrock grinding bowls, actual stairs created by the Chacoans, and a portion of ancient roadway showing the stone cerb. I also saw a fairly obvious spiral petroglyph on a boulder.
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Date Added: 1st Jun 2012
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 25th Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by bat400 on 25th May 2012. Pueblo Bonito Great House, taken from the cliff edge directly north of the site. Photo by bat400, April 2012.
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Log Text: An amazing site, the absolute must-see for anyone visiting the park. In the morning I was on a hike that took me to the cliff top above Pueblo Bonita for a striking "aerial" view. By the afternoon, the site was overcast. I think the structure would be particularly beautiful early or late in the day with full sun creating shadows as you walk through the vacant rooms.
The trail through the site limits you by which rooms you can enter, but you can completely circuit the outer wall of the pueblo and there is access to most of the plazas and many rooms in the eastern portion. You can linger as long as you like during daylight hours. Various masonary techniques and architectural styles can be seen in the complex.
Park ranger tours are available several times a day during high season, see the website for the National Park. An inexpensive guide is also available as you enter the site, or from the Visitor's Center. Wheel chair access is possible for a portion of the site's walking trail, but the path is sand or gravel, not paved. Large chair tires or an assistant would be necessary.
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo del Arroyo
Date Added: 29th May 2012
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Saw from a distance. My rating: Condition 3 Access 4
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo del Arroyo submitted by bat400 on 27th May 2012. A view of the Great House taken from the cliffs on the north side of the canyon.
Photo by bat400, April 2012.
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Log Text: None
Chaco Culture NHP - Una Vida
Date Added: 29th May 2012
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 25th Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 5 Access 3
Chaco Culture NHP - Una Vida submitted by bat400 on 27th May 2012. A view of the Great House ruin from the cliffside to the north east. Fajada Butte is in the distance.
Photo by bat400.
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Log Text: Atmospheric, and has great views of Fajada Butte (somewhat marred by a view of the rear of the visitor's center). I was there as the sun was starting to set. The site is actually built on a fairly obvious slope above the canyon floor. Since it is mostly in an unexcavated or backfilled state, a trail guide is very helpful.
The petroglyph panel is further up the slop into the lower margin of the cliffs. The view from that location gives you a better appreciation for the Great House layout.
Chan Chan
Date Added: 28th Sep 2018
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: Peru
Visited: Saw from a distance on 6th Sep 2018. My rating: Condition 2
Chan Chan submitted by SolarMegalith on 16th Dec 2009. However large part of Chimu capital is in very poor condition now, the area of Tschudi Palace with ornaments made in clay is restored (photo taken on July 2003).
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Log Text: None
Chankillo - 13 Towers
Date Added: 28th Sep 2018
Site Type: Ancient Temple
Country: Peru
Visited: Saw from a distance on 3rd Sep 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Access 2
Chankillo - 13 Towers submitted by sophs74 on 22nd Aug 2011. Chanquillo Solar Observatory Towers, in the desert near Casma, Peru
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Log Text: None
Chankillo Fortress
Date Added: 28th Sep 2018
Site Type: Ancient Temple
Country: Peru
Visited: Yes on 3rd Sep 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 2
Chankillo Fortress submitted by bat400 on 15th Nov 2018. The Chankillo hilltop "Fortress" with its concentric walls and the thirteen sighting towers in the valley beyond and to the left in this picture.
Photo by bat400.
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Log Text: None
Chavín de Huantar
Date Added: 9th Oct 2018
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: Peru
Visited: Yes on 2nd Sep 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4
Chavín de Huantar submitted by sophs74 on 22nd Aug 2011. Tunnels inside the pyramid at Chavin de Huantar, Huaraz, Peru
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Log Text: None
Chinchero
Date Added: 25th Sep 2018
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: Peru
Visited: Yes on 13th Sep 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3
Chinchero submitted by Jurgen on 5th Dec 2006. Sacred Valley of the Incas, Cusco, Peru.
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Log Text: None
Chotuna-Chornancap
Date Added: 25th Sep 2018
Site Type: Ancient Temple
Country: Peru
Visited: Yes on 8th Sep 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3
Chotuna-Chornancap submitted by bat400 on 17th Sep 2012. Depiction of Naymlap arriving at Chotuna-Chornancap on his balsa raft.
Naymlap, gold plaque, Chimu 1000-1450 A.D.
Photo by wikipedian user: Paname-IV, copyright holder
Date: 31 Dec 2010
Source: Lombards Museum.
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
Site in Peru
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Log Text: None
Chrysler Enclosure
Date Added: 12th Sep 2010
Site Type: Henge
Country: United States (Great Lakes Midwest)
Visited: Yes on 15th Jan 2007
Chrysler Enclosure submitted by bat400 on 15th Jan 2007. Chrysler Enclosure, Henry County, IN.
Circular Earthwork Enclosure.
An earthen ring thrown up on the outside of a circular ditch, about 30 ft dia. The ditch is broken by an entry way sited to align the center of the enclosure with the winter solstice sunrise.
Photo by bat400 Oct 2006.
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Log Text: None
Chysauster
Date Added: 4th Aug 2017
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: England (Cornwall)
Visited: Yes on 1st Aug 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 5 Access 4
Chysauster submitted by cromagnonman on 2nd Mar 2011. Part of Chysauster taken at sunrise. Spring 2011
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Log Text: None