Photos

This is the only one church on the Acoma Sky City, taken from the village. It is not allowed to take its picture in its complex. The church is very beautiful, but the town got no sewer system, even electricity. Therefore they have to have the portable potties around the whole town.

Acoma Pueblo, Sky City is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the United States. The Pueblo was built on a 70-acre site of the massive sandstone mesa which rises 367 feet above the valley and approximately 7,000 feet above sea level. Its location made it ideally situated for defense against enemies. In 1540, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado became the first white man to enter Sky City. He described the Acoma fortress as: "One of the strongest ever seen, because the city was built on a high rock. The ascent was so difficult that we repented climbing to the top."

The Pueblo's mission church, San Esteban del Rey, was built from 1629 to 1640 with all building materials hand carried or hauled up the steep slopes of the mesa. Both the mission and the Pueblo have been proclaimed National Historic Landmarks.