Navajo National Monument: Betatakin, AZ By Aaron Johnson, Joel Anderson, 2024
- Navajo National Monument: Betatakin, AZ
One of the National Park Service’s mandates is to preserve the cultural history of the United States in the places where that culture was practiced, hence the organization’s stewardship of national monuments and historic sites. Case in point, Navajo National Monument, located in the northwest portion of the Navajo Nation territory in northern Arizona, was established to protect the exceedingly well-preserved cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloan people: Keet Seel, Betatakin, and Inscription House. For centuries, the Hopi, San Juan Southern Paiute, Zuni, and Navajo people have inhabited the canyons. Springs fed into farmlands on the canyon floor, and homes were built in the natural sandstone alcoves to provide shelter from the elements. The cliff dwellings of Betatakin, Keet Seel, and Inscription House were last physically occupied around 1300 AD, but the villages maintain a strong spiritual presence that can still be felt today. Betatakin gets its name from the ledges of the alcove on which all the rooms are constructed. Celebrating the park, this national monument design and vintage poster art by Anderson Design Group would be perfect for home or office decor. It also serves as an excellent national park gift for the travel enthusiast in your life. As an original illustration, the design will look great as an unframed print, framed poster, notecard, postcard, metal sign, canvas, or mini canvas. Available in multiple size options, this hand-rendered nature illustration is fashioned in the style of the 20th-century vintage art and the iconic travel art and national park art that first promoted the national parks and national monuments. For trip-planning, fun facts, helpful resources, and important conservation information for this park and so many other beautiful national parks, monuments, and wilderness areas across the U.S., check out the website for the National Park Foundation.