Wupatki National Monument preserves a remarkable concentration of ancient pueblos on the high desert plain north of Flagstaff, about 50 kilometres from town on the road to Cameron. The ruins are built in red Moenkopi sandstone and rise against a backdrop of treeless volcanic plains — a striking setting unlike anything else in the region.
The largest ruin, Wupatki Pueblo, had over 100 rooms and may have housed several hundred people at its height around 1150 CE, making it one of the largest structures in the prehistoric Southwest at that time. Nearby Wukoki Pueblo is a three-storey tower in an even more dramatic position, rising from a sandstone outcrop like a castle. The monument can be combined easily with Sunset Crater Volcano, which is immediately south and explains much of the volcanic landscape that surrounds Wupatki.