The
Aztec Ruins National Monument preserves
Ancestral Puebloan structures in north-western New Mexico, United States, located close to the town of
Aztec and northeast of
Farmington, near the
Animas River.
Salmon Ruins and Heritage Park, with more Puebloan structures, lies a short distance to the south, just west of
Bloomfield near the San Juan River. The buildings date to the 11th to 13th centuries, and the misnomer attributing them to the
Aztec civilization can be traced back to early American settlers in the mid-19th century. The actual construction was by the Ancestral Puebloans.