The Crow Canyon Archaeological District contains one of the most well known and extensive collections of Navajo petroglyphs in the United States. The south-facing wall of the canyon consists of 44 rock art panels depicting clusters of hundreds of the earliest Navajo petroglyphs known to date. The petroglyphs are believed to have had powerful ceremonial and symbolic meaning to the Navajo people. Many similarities have been observed between the images that are represented in the petroglyphs and the ceremonial sand paintings of the Navajo people. Discovered among the petroglyphs, are also Anasazi images from the early Ancestral Pueblo people. The Anasazi were the ancient ancestors of the modern-day Pueblo people of New Mexico and Arizona. They are known to be cliff dwellers that inhabited the area from AD100 to approximately, AD1600, indicating that this area was inhabited prior to the settling of the Navajo people.
