Casa Grande Ruins

We visited the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument the other day. Absolutely fascinating, and it was yet another moment in my life where I had more than a passing regret at not becoming an archaeologist. Present-day people generally anger me, but ancient people tend to fascinate me. This 35' tall structure, for example, was built around 1300 AD by people living in the middle of the friggin' desert. They didn't use bricks. It was part of a larger compound which was surrounded by seven-foot walls composed of the same material. The current theory is that the structure itself is a celestial calendar of some sort. This, in turn, was part of a larger community of walled-in compounds. One of the structures in center of the compounds was a ball court. Very. Friggin. Cool.

Oh, and that's my better half in the lower left corner of the picture. Just to give you a sense of scale. For those of you who don't know how tall she is, she is more than three apples high. For those of you who know that unit of measurement, enjoy the song.