How to Use
the Map

Table of
Contents

Map 1: Early Puebloan communities in
present day New Mexico.

Gran Quivira, the largest of the Salinas pueblos, lies in the 6,500-foot-high Salinas basin, now called the Estancia Valley, between the rocky Chupadera Mesa on the west and the Gallinas Mountains on the east. The area receives little water and has a short growing season.

1. Locate and circle Gran Quivira, Quarai, and Abó, the three pueblos that make up Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument.

2. What do you notice about the location of most of the villages? Why might this be the case?

3. How does the location of Gran Quivira compare with that of most other pueblos on the map? Use the map scale to determine Gran Quivira's approximate distance from the Rio Grande and the Rio Pecos. How might this have affected Gran Quivira's inhabitants?

* The map on this screen has a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi), and therefore will print poorly. You can obtain a high quality version of Map 1, but be aware that the file may take as much as 35 seconds to load with a 28.8K modem.