Sun Temple

Sun Temple is one stop on the six-mile Mesa Top Loop, a drive linking twelve ancestral sites with short paved paths and cliff-dwelling overlooks. It works best as part of that loop, alongside a few other stops. The site has interpretive information and restrooms; it's listed as wheelchair accessible.

The walls are about four feet thick. Excavations uncovered 24 rooms of different sizes, three circular structures inside the main complex, and another circle set apart to the southeast. The broad D-shaped outline is the feature to notice: it gives the whole place a different feel from the scattered buildings and cliff alcoves elsewhere on the mesa.

Sun Temple was likely a communal building that played an important role in the Cliff Palace community. Turn from the ruin and look across the canyon to Cliff Palace; seeing the two together makes the setting easier to understand. The view is part of what makes this more than a stop to inspect masonry.

No roof beams or household goods were found, and the building's purpose and completion are still uncertain. It may have been left roofless on purpose or never finished. One idea is that observers at Cliff Palace used Sun Temple's walls to mark events in the sky, including the winter-solstice sunset. Those are possibilities, not settled answers.