The ruins of Long House, once a dwelling of some 300 rooms.

Principal Ruins of the National Monument

LONG HOUSE. About one-fourth of a mile up the canyon from Tyuonyi, also against the northern and sun-warmed cliff, is the ruin of one of the largest combination cave-and-masonry dwellings to be found anywhere on the plateau. This great ruin is known as Long House for an obvious reason—it stretches almost 800 feet in a continuous block of rooms. For all of this distance, the masonry walls are backed by a sheer and largely smooth wall of tuff some 150 feet high. Into this cliff are dug many cave rooms, several kivas, and a variety of storage niches, all of which were incorporated into a single dwelling of over 300 rooms, rising 3 stories high. At Long House the rows of viga (roof-beam) holes in the cliff are particularly conspicuous, defining the onetime roof levels for hundreds of feet at a stretch. The site of Long House is especially pleasing, having an elevation of 40 or 50 feet above the canyon bottom, but close enough to the creek so that the sound of running water may be heard, and near enough to the huge stream-bordering cottonwoods to partake of the coolness of their foliage. If it is conceivable to envy any of the people of prehistoric times, surely we should envy the dwellers of Long House.