Clue #2 – The Chacoan Road System

In addition to the Kiva Clue, there is another very important clue pointing towards Pueblo Bonito not being a city, but serving as a ceremonial center. This clue is the network of over 400 miles of roads that radiate out with surprising precision from Chaco Canyon to other Anasazi sites. These roads, up to 20 feet wide with double or even quadruple lanes, laid unknown for hundreds of years.

Modern technology had been the key to their discovery. The roads were revealed when scientists flew over the Chacoan region in small planes, using infrared and other high tech photography to capture images of structures not apparent to the naked eye. Their photographs showed that there were precise, straight roads radiating out from Chaco Canyon like spokes – aimed towards other Anasazi sites. But this discovery gave rise to another mystery. Click here to see the map of these roads.

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Scientists first thought these roads must have served an economic function, linking different pueblos in a trade network to exchange goods and strengthen local and regional economic wealth.  They imagined that traders loaded up with goods and used the roads to transport those goods between pueblos. 

There is evidence that there was a strong trade network in the region – not only among the related Anasazi villages, but also between the Anasazi and the cities of ancient Mexico (evident in the Toltec-style of architectural colonnade – row of columns – found in the Chetro Ketl pueblo site in Chaco Canyon, and the presence of tropical parrots and feathers in the pueblos) and with traders from Baja and Alta California (evident in the presence of sea shells only found in the coastal lands).

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But on closer examination, it was discovered that these roads did not always go to villages, that they did not always follow the easiest road for human use, and would ultimately not have been practical as trade routes. In fact, some of these roads refused to detour around large rock obstructions – they insisted on going up and over rocks with toe hold grips or narrow steps, rather than follow a more logical route that could have easily by-passed the obstruction. These strange features in the roads required a dangerous climb up and over a rock face, rather than easily around it. Still other roads ended far away from a village site, and instead ended at sites of kivas or rock shrines a considerable distance from the closest village.

Why build roads that do not connect people from village to village? Why build roads that are dangerous for people when nearby routes would have been safe? Why insist on building in exacting straight lines? Why not follow the terrain for easier travel?

Scientists began to reconsider why these roads were built. They are broad – up to twenty feet across – as wide as a four lane highway. Why clear miles and miles of trails if not for people to travel from village to village? Researchers have found that these roads were built to connect 150 GREAT HOUSES and CERMONIAL SITES directly to Chaco Canyon. While people probably used parts of the roads as trade routes as times, it now appears the roads were built with considerable effort and precision to connect sacred places important to Chacoan religion, history and culture. And while they were probably intended for people as transportation corridors, it was their symbolic rather than practical features that made them so important.

In other places in the world, such lines and roads have existed. It is thought that the famous standing stones of Britain – Avebury and Stonehenge for example, were sacred sites linked by specific roads. These roads were then walked as part of an annual ceremony, going from sacred site to sacred site as a re-enactment of a religious story. Likewise Muslims hope to make a pilgrimage to Mecca in the footsteps of their forefathers, following a path held sacred from generations. And down in Peru, the ancient Incas were able to form vast straight lines and mysterious images across board arid plains that when seen from the sky reveals their geometric accuracy.