Want to know how people in America lived hundreds of years ago, before English colonization? At Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico, you can get a glimpse into the culture and daily goings-on of Native Americans through the 24,000 petroglyphs – patterns and images chipped into volcanic rock – that fill the landscape.

The petroglyphs feature all sorts of carvings, from images of everyday sights like people, animals and hunting scenes to intricate patterns and abstract shapes. All these images are of huge significance. Carved during the Ancestral Pueblo period, between 1300 to 1600 AD, they are one of the earliest examples of cultural expression, and continue to be of huge spiritual value for Native Americans today.