Photos

Like a ship passing in the night, sailing though the high desert scrublands, the Wukoki pueblo is silhouetted against the rising sun which is framed in the third story window. Wukoki means “big house” in the Hopi language.

This and the many other ruins of pueblos and houses within the Wupatki National Monument were build by the people whom archaeologists refer to as the Sinagua people. Sinagua is the Spanish word for "without water" and refers to those people's ability to cultivate corn, beans, and squash without an assured source of water. They relied on the fickle monsoon rains.

The monument is located between the Painted Desert and ponderosa highlands of northern Arizona.

ISO 31, f/16 at 1/8000 second, ev -1, 56mm focal length