Coronado State Monument

When the Spanish explorer Coronado traveled through this region in 1540-41 while searching for the Seven Cities of Cíbola, he wintered at a village on the west bank of the Rio Grande -- probably one on the ruins of the ancient Anasazi Pueblo known as Kuaua. Those excavated ruins have been preserved in this state monument.

Hundreds of rooms can be seen, and a kiva has been restored so that visitors can descend a ladder into the enclosed space, once the site of sacred rites. Unique multicolored murals, depicting human and animal forms, were found on successive layers of wall plaster in this and other kivas here; some examples are displayed in the monument's small archaeological museum.

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