Tiguex Province

The panel's numbers are the ones the National Park Service printed when Petroglyph National Monument was new, a few miles south along Albuquerque's West Mesa: more than 15,000 images and a 12,000-year story of people on the escarpment. Later counts put the images at about 24,000. The dating says more than the total. Most were pecked between about 1300 and 1650, the centuries when the Tiwa towns of Tiguex stood along this valley, so much of the escarpment is their record, and Pueblo people still treat it as sacred ground rather than a gallery.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Tiguex Province More than one hundred prehistoric and historic pueblos and other archeological sites and over 15,000 petroglyphs or rock art sites give ample evidence of the occupa- tion of this valley for at least 12,000 years. Spanish explorers who came into the area in the sixteenth century gave the name "Tiguex Province" to the dozen or more Tiwa-speaking Indian pueblos (towns) they found in the middle Rio Grande Valley.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Petroglyph National Monument — 11 mi
  Some 24,000 images pecked into the dark basalt of Albuquerque's West Mesa, protected in 1990 and then crossed by a city boulevard.

More markers nearby

• Dulcelina Salce Curtis (1904-1995) — 0.9 mi
• Iglesia de San Ysidro — 2.5 mi
• Spanish Entrada Site — 3.1 mi
• Corrales — 3.4 mi