This prehistoric 120 room Sinagua Indian pueblo was built and occupied between 1125 and and 1400 A.D. and is built upon a spiny outcrop of limestone next to the Verde River and Pecks Lake. Pecks Lake is a cutoff meander of the Verde river. Giving credence to the name Tuzigoot meaning crooked water's.
While taking this photo, I'm standing on top of an even larger un-excavated hilltop pueblo. Behind me on the opposite edge of the ruin there's a steep drop off with the Verde river about 300 feet below.
Tuzigoot is the largest and best preserved of the many Sinagua pueblo ruins in the Verde Valley. The ruins at Tuzigoot incorporate very few doors; instead, the inhabitants used ladders accessed by trapdoor type openings in the roofs to enter each room.
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Tuzigoot was excavated from 1933 to 1935 by Louis Caywood and Edward Spicer of the University of Arizona, with funding from the federal Civil Works Administration and Works Project Administration. In 1935–1936, with additional federal funding, the ruins were prepared for public display, and a Pueblo Revival-style museum and visitor center was constructed.
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Franklin D. Roosevelt designated Tuzigoot Ruins as a U.S. National Monument on July 25, 1939. The Tuzigoot National Monument Archeological District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.
The ruins are surrounded by the tailings pond of the former United Verde copper mine at Jerome. The tailings have recently been stabilized and revegetated.
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Tuzigoot National Monument is located West of Sedona in the Verde Valley next to the town of Clarkdale Arizona.
Here's another shot showing part of Pecks Lake down below.
Enjoy!