Cholla Site
 A rock shelter at the Cholla site opens to the west, and provides a perfect view of the setting Sun. At the summer solstice, light from the setting Sun shines through a crack in a large boulder at the front of the shelter, and forms a double-arrow shape on a second boulder at the back of the shelter. Archaeologists speculate that early inhabitants noticed this alignment and decided the site held special significance. Read
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Caddo Mounds
 Caddoan
Mounds today contains the remains of three large mounds. The largest,
at the southern edge of the site, is called Mound A. It probably was the
earliest and most significant mound. About 40 houses were built around
it, but not all were in use at the same time. Read
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Paint Rock
 Paint
Rock is home to more than 1,000 pictographs painted on a limestone
cliff that is as much as 70 feet high on the north bank of the
Concho River. The paintings, done in red, black, yellow, and white, stretch
for more than a half-mile along the layered cliff face.
Recent studies suggest that some panels at the site show some overall organization,
which archaeologists had not previously recognized at the site. Read
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Buried City
 Buried City stretches for several miles along the slopes of Wolf Creek,
a small stream that was fed year-round by springs. The picturesque
valley provided abundant water and game and relatively good farming
conditions. One Buried City house seems to show more than one
astronomical alignment. The east and west walls line up north
to south -- an alignment that may have been made by watching
the North Star. The other two walls line up with the sunrise
on the equinoxes in March and September. Read more >>
Hot Well Pueblo
 Many pueblo cultures have had designated “sunwatchers” to
track the Sun’s annual motion across the horizon. In the case of
Hot Well, the typical date of the last freeze is around the time
of the spring equinox, so knowing when the equinox occurred could have
told the inhabitants that it was safe to plant their crops. Read
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Hueco Tanks
 Hueco Tanks consists of several small, mounded granite outcrops surrounding
a large central basin. The site is surrounded by flat desert lands
to the west and the Hueco Mountains to the east. Astronomical connections
at Hueco Tanks are a bit speculative. A few of the pictographs
show stars, sunbursts, or crescent Moons. Read
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