Tuzigoot National Monument is located between the Mogollon Rim and the Verde Valley in central Arizona. While this is an 834-acre site, only 58 acres is actually owned by the National Park Service. Tuzigoot is the site of an ancient pueblo built by the Sinagua people around 1000 AD. The pueblo grew in fits and spurts until the area was abandoned around 1400 AD. At the end, the pueblo was 2 and 3 stories tall in places, with about 110 rooms.

The Sinagua built this pueblo in an interesting place. There are several perennial streams flowing here to provide water for the people and for their irrigated crops in the center of a parched landscape populated with solitary junipers. Nearby is the Tavisci Marsh, a rich riparian habitat that supports many different plant and animal species. There are mineral-rich, multi-colored soils in all directions, materials used to make their distinctively designed and colored pottery. As the Sinagua were agriculturalists and artisans who traded with cultures up to several hundred miles away, it would seem that Tuzigoot was built at a crossroads and inhabited by a sophisticated population of farmers, manufacturers and merchants.