It is also a museum of the Ancestral Puebloan culture and other Native cultures in the Four Corners region. Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is a rugged and breathtaking landscape containing the highest known density of archaeological sites in the United States. The monument, covering 176,000 acres, is home to over 9,300 recorded archaeological sites including cliff dwellings, kivas and rock art. Six miles from the heart of Cortez, CANM was designated as a National Monument in 2000. The Canyons of the Ancients Visitor Center & Museum, located outside of the monument, is a museum of the Ancestral Pueblo culture and other native cultures in the Four Corners region and also serves as a visitor center for the monument. The center is also a nationally recognized curation facility, housing thousands of artifacts of ancestral Puebloan culture.
