Interior View of an Upper Level
Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, New Mexico

The Mogollon Indians who built these cliff dwellings used wooden beams called "vigas" to support some of the floors and roofs.  Some very small vigas are evident as poles sticking out halfway up the ceiling scraping tower on the right.  When Adolph Bandelier made the white man's first recorded visit to the ruins in 1884, he reported that none of the original roofs were still in place.  All had either collapsed or had otherwise been destroyed.  Photograph taken in 1991 by Howard J. Partridge.

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