Casa Grande Ruins National Monument

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument (O'odham: Siwañ Waʼa Ki: or Sivan Vahki) is a United States national monument preserving a group of Classic Period (1150–1450 CE) Hohokam structures in Coolidge, Arizona, northeast of Casa Grande [1]. The national monument consists of the ruins of multiple structures surrounded by a compound wall, constructed by the ancient people of the Hohokam period [1]. They farmed the Gila Valley in the early 13th century [1]. Archeologists have discovered evidence that the people of the ancient Sonoran Desert, who built the Casa Grande, also developed wide-scale irrigation farming and extensive trade connections which lasted over a thousand years until about 1450 CE [1]. "Casa Grande" is Spanish for "big house" (Siwañ Wa'a Ki: in O'odham) [1]. These names refer to the largest structure on the site, which is what remains of a four-story structure that may have been abandoned by 1450 [1]. The structure is made of caliche, and has managed to survive the extreme weather conditions for about seven centuries [1].