Taos Pueblo
UNESCO World Heritage Site (1992) And National Historic Landmark; Sovereign Land Of The Pueblo Of Taos, Not A Public Park · Taos, New Mexico
Taos Pueblo is the only living Native American community on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and people have lived here continuously for something like a thousand years. Two great adobe house blocks face each other across the Rio Pueblo de Taos, Hlauuma to the north and Hlaukwima to the south, rising four and five storeys in stepped tiers of mud brick. They are not restored. They are replastered by hand with mud and straw every year or two, which is why the walls curve and why the place looks the way it does. Around 150 people live inside the old walls full time, without electricity or piped water by the community's own decision, and roughly two thousand more Taos Pueblo members live on the surrounding land. Visitors are welcome, but on the pueblo's terms and not on a park's: it closes for about ten weeks in late winter, it closes for ceremonies at short notice, and the rules about cameras and doorways are real rules. The shelled bell tower of the 1619 San Geronimo church stands in its walled graveyard at the north end.
120 Veterans Highway, Taos Pueblo, Taos, New Mexico, 87571, United States
Open to visitors most days in the warmer half of the year, typically from mid-morning to late afternoon, with the last entry well before closing. It shuts completely for roughly ten weeks in late winter and early spring for ceremonial reasons, and closes without much notice on individual feast and ceremonial days through the year. There is no way to know from the road. Check the pueblo before you drive out.