Petroglyph National Monument

Stretching 17 miles along Albuquerque's West Mesa, Petroglyph National Monument protects over 24,000 images carved into volcanic basalt by Ancestral Pueblo peoples and later Spanish settlers. The carvings span from approximately 1300 CE to the 17th century and include spirals, labyrinthine motifs, animal figures, kachina masks, and Christian crosses — layered like a geological record of cultural contact. At 325.64° Giza bearing, the monument sits on the Rio Grande Rift, one of North America's most active tectonic features. The five volcanic cones within the monument — sacred to the Pueblo people as part of their emergence mythology — erupted 190,000 years ago, creating the dark basalt canvas. The concentration of 24,000 carvings per 17 miles makes this one of the densest petroglyph sites in the Western Hemisphere.