Montezuma Castle National Monument

Montezuma Castle is a five-story, 20 room cliff dwelling nestled in a limestone recess high above Beaver Creek. It is a prehistoric "high-rise apartment building" used over six centuries ago.

With heightened concern over vandalism of fragile southwestern prehistoric sites, Montezuma Castle became a major factor in the nation's historic preservation movement with its proclamation as a national monument. The Castle was described in the December 1906 establishment proclamation as "of the greatest ethnological and scientific interest.