Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, USA

© Brad McGinley Photography/Getty Image

Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, USA

Mesa Verde National Park, located in Montezuma County, Colorado, was one of the United States’ first national parks created with the aim of protecting the archaeological remains left behind by previous cultures and preserving the site of a unique physical landscape. With more than 4,000 known archeological sites dating back to A.D. 550, this UNESCO World Heritage site protects the cliff dwellings, masonry towers and farming structures of the Ancestral Puebloans who lived here for more than 700 years. In fact, Mesa Verde National Park was among the first World Heritage sites chosen by the UNESCO committee, in 1978, for this very reason.