Paquimé (Casas Grandes) Desert Lines & Adobe Geoglyphs
Casas Grandes Geoglyphs · Mata Ortiz Desert Lines
Medio period (Casas Grandes, 1060–1340 CE)·Mogollon–Paquimé (Casas Grandes)·🇲🇽 Chihuahua, Casas Grandes Municipality, Paquimé basin, Sierra Madre piedmont, Mexico
About
About Paquimé (Casas Grandes) Desert Lines & Adobe Geoglyphs
1060–1340 CE), the Mogollon core 350 km south of Pueblo country. INAH Chihuahua 2008–2019 revealed, beyond the 1,800-room city, 60+ 15–80 m alignments: rubble owl-eyes 18 m diameter visible only from the Cerro de Moctezuma signal hill, 30-m avian alignments and 200-m processional calzadas linking ballcourts to cenote springs. These are constructed with puddled adobe rubble and caliche scraping, contemporaneous with Ramos polychrome (1200–1350 CE) at the city acropolis.
Interpretation: civic-ceremonial 'desert city plan' viewed from the bird-spirit mountain, linking Casas Grandes macaw breeding enclosures to Mesoamerican cosmology. Housing sprawl and irrigated pecan orchards encroach.
Why it mattersOnly Mogollon desert geoglyph tradition — links Puebloan, Mesoamerican and Paquimé cosmology.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Owl icon link to macaw cult
Theories
- 01City-as-geoglyph sightline
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.1060 – 1340 CE (Medio period)
- Period
- Medio period (Casas Grandes, 1060–1340 CE)
- Culture
- Mogollon–Paquimé (Casas Grandes)
- Builders
- Paquimé Mogollon elite and communal labor
- Purpose
- Urban ceremonial extension linking hill-top shrine to valley city
- Abandoned
- c.1340 CE (abrupt burning)
- Rediscovered
- 1568 Baltasar de Obregón; 1958 Di Peso excavation; 2008 INAH lines mapping
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
1060
Viejo to Medio transition, first rubble owls
2019
INAH lidar maps 60 alignments
On the ground
Structures & features
30.3680° N · 107.9480° W · 1470 m · 2 mapped features
Owl-Eye Geoglyph (18 m)
geoglyphTwin 18-m adobe rubble owl eyes sighted from Moctezuma
30.3700° N · 107.9500° WCeremonial Calzada (200 m)
earthwork200-m caliche avenue ballcourt to cenote
30.3660° N · 107.9450° W
Gallery