Montezuma Castle National Monument , archaeological site in Central Arizona , United States The memorial is located in the Verde River Valley northeast of Camp Verde and approximately 20 miles southeast of Tuzigoot National Monument . Founded in 1906, they has an area of 1.3 square - miles (3.4 square kilometers) and includes one of the best preserved pre-Columbian Pueblo Indians cliff dwellings in the United States .
The "Castle" is a five-storey, 20-room adobe and stone structure dating from the 1100s ce , which was carved into a cavity in the limestone wall about 24 meters above the valley floor by prehistoric Sinagua humans. It's almost completely intact. It has no connection to the aztec emperor whose name it bears, but was named by settlers who believed it was built by Aztec refugees from Mexico been. To the northeast is Montezuma Well, a large sinkhole containing Sinagua communal dwellings dating from 1125 to 1400.