Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe

Castles and Cave Dwellings of
Europe

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Title: Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe
Author: Sabine Baring-Gould
Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8898] [Yes, we are more than

one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on August 21,
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CLIFF CASTLES AND CAVE DWELLINGS OF EUROPE
BY
S. BARING-GOULD, M.A.
[Illustration: CLIFF-CASTLE, BRENGUES. In this castle the Bishop
of Cahors took refuge from the English, to whom he refused to submit,
and in it he died in 1367. It was however captured by the English in
1377.]
"The house i' the rock . . . no life to ours." CYMBELINE III. 3.

PREFACE
When in 1850 appeared the Report of the Secretary of War for the
United States, containing Mr. J. H. Simpson's account of the Cliff
Dwellings in Colorado, great surprise was awakened in America, and
since then these remains have been investigated by many explorers, of
whom I need only name Holmes' "Report of the Ancient Ruins in
South-West Colorado during the Summers of 1875 and 1876," and
Jackson's "Ruins of South- West Colorado in 1875 and 1877." Powell,
Newberry, &c., have also described them. A summary is in "Prehistoric
America," by the Marquis de Nadaillac, 1885, and the latest
contribution to the subject are articles in _Scribner's Magazine_ by E. S.
Curtis, 1906 and 1909.
The Pueblos Indians dwell for the most part at a short distance from the

Rio Grande; the Zuñi, however, one of their best known tribes, are
settled far from that river, near the sources of the Gila. In the Pueblos
country are tremendous cañons of red sandstone, and in their sides are
the habitations of human beings perched on every ledge in inaccessible
positions. Major Powell, United States Geologist, expressed his
amazement at seeing nothing for whole days but perpendicular cliffs
everywhere riddled with human dwellings resembling the cells of a
honeycomb. The apparently inaccessible heights were scaled by means
of long poles with lateral teeth disposed like the rungs of a ladder, and
inserted at intervals in notches let into the face of the perpendicular
rock. The most curious of these dwellings, compared to which the most
Alpine chalet is of easy access, have ceased to be occupied, but the
Maqui, in North-West Arizona, still inhabit villages of stone built on
sandstone tables, standing isolated in the midst of a sandy ocean almost
destitute of vegetation.
The cause of the abandonment of the cliff dwellings has been the
diminished rainfall, that rendering the land barren has sent its
population elsewhere. The rivers, the very streams, are dried up, and
only parched water-courses show where they once flowed.
"The early inhabitants of the region under notice were wonderfully
skilful in turning the result of the natural weathering of the rocks to
account. To construct a cave-dwelling, the entrance to the cave or the
front of the open gallery was walled up with adobes, leaving only a
small opening serving for both door and window. The cliff houses take
the form and dimensions of the platform or ledge from which they rise.
The masonry is well laid, and it is wonderful with what skill the walls
are joined to the cliff, and with what care the aspect of the
neighbouring rocks has been imitated in the external architecture."
[Footnote: Nadaillac, "Prehistoric America," Lond. 1885, p. 205.]
In Asia also these rock-dwellings abound. The limestone cliffs of
Palestine are riddled with them. They are found also in Armenia and in
Afghanistan. At Bamian, in the latter, "the rocks are perforated in every
direction. A whole people could put up in the 'Twelve Thousand
Galleries' which occupy the slopes of the valley for