Product Description
In this landmark work on the Anasazi tribes of the Southwest, naturalist Craig Childs dives head on into the mysteries of this vanished people.

The various tribes that made up the Anasazi people converged on Chaco Canyon (New Mexico) during the 11th century to create a civilization hailed as "the Las Vegas of its day," a flourishing cultural center that attracted pilgrims from far and wide, and a vital crossroads of the prehistoric world. By the 13th century, however, Chaco's vibrant community had disappeared without a trace.

Was it drought? Pestilence? War? Forced migration, mass murder or suicide? Conflicting theories have abounded for years, capturing the North American imagination for eons.

Join Craig Childs as he draws on the latest scholarly research, as well as a lifetime of exploration in the forbidden landscapes of the American Southwest, to shed new light on this compelling mystery. He takes us from Chaco Canyon to the highlands of Mesa Verde, to the Mongollon Rim; to a contemporary Zuni community where tribal elders maintain silence about the fate of their Lost Others; and to the largely unexplored foothills of the Sierra Madre in Mexico, where abundant remnants of Anasazi culture lie yet to be uncovered.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 31 reviews)

Wonderful book

A wonderful book.Very well researched and written.I wish it didn't end.I'm now going to travel to see some of the places that he wrote about.And I will pick up more of his books.HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
November 14, 2008

Totally engrossing

Craig Childs is a masterful writer. He makes you want to be right there with him in the wild desert lands of the southwest. He clearly is very knowledgeable about the Anasazi civilization. Plus, the reader is treated to numerous instances where Childs enlivens the text with some beautifully crafted language.

Childs has been compared to Edward Abbey, which is apt; however, he conveys his love of the desert with less stridency and a Zen-like ability to see with the disciplined eye of dispassionate observation.

I often marveled at his fearlessness to undertake very physically challenging excursions through the imposing desert environment where water [or the lack of] defines survival or death.

I envy him for the rare, beautiful and enigmatic sights he has seen. Surely he has experienced something rare and privileged in our shrinking world. He has seen many sights that have not been glimpsed by another human being for hundreds of years.

I think he has done a wonderful job developing a valid hypothesis regarding the alleged disappearance of the Anasazi. The solid technical and scientific knowledge he imparts in this book is a welcome relief from the popular junk science one frequently finds on almost any intriguing subject these days. The book has an extensive bibliography documenting the vast store of current knowledge concerning the Anasazi. No extraterrestrial explanations were proposed in the writing of this book!

Not only did this book capture my imagination; I learned a lot about the desert southwest, the Anasazi culture and the mysteries that still remain to be discovered.
November 11, 2008

Insightful

This is one of the best books on the Anasazi, or ancestral Puebloans, that I have ever read. Rather than being a dry, archeological text, the author hoofs it across the Southwest and Mexico tracking the remains of the ancient ones who migrated there. All of Childs' books feature him on foot exploring places that few dare to tread. This book allows him to get inside the hearts and heads of a people who supposedly vanished over a thousand years ago. A great companion to David Roberts book on the Anasazi.
September 01, 2008

House of Rain

There always have been conflicting theories as to what has happened to the people, commonly called the Anasazi, who occupied the abandoned villages throughout the southwest. Working with various archeologists and visiting numerous abandoned sites you get a feel for how life was prior to the arrival of the european settlers. Craig Stevens gives his analysis of the reasons the "Anasazi" left the area of the abandoned villages. Read the book and you will be able to give your own ideas as to where they went and why they left the area.
August 30, 2008

Anasazi Explained

This is a jaw-dropper of a book. Of all the books about the Anasazi, this is the only one that tells it all, puts it all together. Craig Childs has trudged his soulful way through all the dwellings, all the literature, tracing these mysterious people's movements over hundreds of years and hundreds of miles. He has given full rein to common sense and intuition in figuring out who they were, what they did and why. Adding to the excitement of continuous discovery, the reader is led through mile after mile on foot through dangerous terrain and weather, into caves, straight up mountains and deep into canyons. And as the story unfolds, each moment is as astonishing as if one were there. There is no impenetrable archaeological jargon here; plain English reigns. It is thrilling reading, understandable in every way and immensely satisfying.
August 04, 2008

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The Secret Knowledge of Water : Discovering the Essence of the American Desert
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Sandstone Spine: Seeking the Anasazi on the First Traverse of the Comb Ridge
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