Raw turquoise was imported from distant mines and transformed into ornaments and jewelry and more jewelry was found here than at any other Southwestern site. One of the most beautiful pieces from Pueblo Bonito was a small frog carved in jet with eyes and a collar of turquoise. They were not simple trails worn by centuries of foot travel. They were engineered and planned and a significant amount of labor was invested in their construction and maintenance. The ancient roads are hard to spot from the ground and slight differences in vegetation may be your only clue.
Aerial views are the best.
The roads stretched 400 miles in several directions and were probably used for trade as well as transportation. On the north-south roads, settlements lay at travel intervals of approximately one day and the outlying pueblos included the ruins we know as Kin Klizhin, Kin Bineola, Kin Ya'a, Pueblo Pintado, and Casamero. To make it easier to move between the canyon bottom and the mesa tops, they carved staircases into the canyon walls. Look for one on your right as you leave Casa Rinconada and find the most famous, the Jackson Stairs , along the Pueblo Alto trail. Religion and Science Religion was central to their culture, as evidenced by the large number of kivas, and Chaco probably served as a religious center for the outlying pueblos.