Citadel Ruins

Stephen Fischer Photography

The Citadel ruins accentuate the protective nature in the design of some of these kiva complexes. This particular one is highly defensible given its location at the end of a penninsula like mesa structure. In order reach it, you must scramble down a fairly sharp cliff edge and then walk out across a fairly exposed and narrow path (see image 6) to the end of the mesa and then back up a set of cliffs to the Citadel. The Citadel ruin at the end of this point is fairly high up. It would be fairly easy to keep attackers at bay from below with an adequate supply of rocks and boulders while defending the open path to reach this end point with arrows from higher up position in the mesa.

For this visit, Don, John, and myself brought along some flash equipment and pocket wizards for a remote triggering capability. We then delicately placed flashes with gels on the edges of the windows of the main Citadel structure.  After spending a while getting the power and color temperature just right, we photographed the Citadel at dusk (see image 4).  It was an interesting experiment and produced some unique pictures, but more difficult than expected. 

Given trickiness in getting out across the ledge on the far side to reach the Citadel going out, we made sure to wrap up our work quickly after dusk in order to safely get back across while there was enough light.