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Archaeologists regard the Verde Valley in central Arizona as a melting pot where at least four prehistoric cultures intermingled. Tuzigoot - Apache for "crooked water" - is the remnant of a Sinagua village erected between 1125 and 1400 AD. It is along a ridge of limestone and sandstone that rises 120 feet above the floodplain north of the Verde River, 25 miles west of Montezuma Castle.
The Sinagua (Spanish for "without water") lived in the Verde Valley foothills and the plateau beyond since about 600 AD. Like the Anasazi, they were pithouse dwellers and dry farmers who were dependent on rain for their crops. By 1125 AD they began to build above-ground masonry dwellings and large pueblos on hilltops or alcoves of cliffs. Tuzigoot represents the vestiges on one of several such communities in the area.
The village began as a small cluster of rooms that were inhabited by about fifty persons for about a century. In the 1200's, the population quadrupled as refugee farmers, fleeing drought in outlying areas, joined the community. The original pueblo had 77 first level rooms and at least 15 second level rooms. Access to the rooms was by wood-pole ladders through hatchways in the roofs.
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