The Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. Built into an alcove, high on a sandstone cliff, the 300 foot long ruin holds 150 rooms and was home to about 100 people. It was built by Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, in the 13th century, about the same time as the Great Crusades were going on in medieval Europe. By the beginning of the 14th century, it had been abandoned. Protected from the weather, the Cliff Palace and its treasures remained virtually intact for 600 years, until its discovery by cowboys in 1888. Curio seekers ransacked its ruins until it was protected by the creation of Mesa Verde National Park in 1906. We viewed it from a nearby cliff at sunset, and I made this image just as the evening shadows enveloped its round kivas and lapped at the base of its towers. While many photographers would prefer images made in the full glow of sunset, I wanted to evoke the passage of time over the long life of this remarkable ruin, and the abstracting shadows of this autumn evening expressed it well for me.