On the east side of the Sun Temple, there are views toward Cliff Palace. At the south end of Cliff Palace there is a tall square tower that has interior pictographs near the top. These pictographs can be viewed at the end of the regular Cliff Palace tours by leaning in the doorway and looking up. The Skywatchers Exhibit has some close up pictures of the pictographs.
A Skywatcher interpretation of these pictographs is that they are a record of observations of the lunar standstill. Every 18.6 years the change from north to south in the monthly orbit of the moon is a maximum and the Ancestral Pueblo Skywatchers seemed to be aware of this.
The Chimney Rock National Monument near Pagosa Springs, Colorado is thought to be a site where the lunar standstill was observed between the unusual Chimney Rock peaks.
There are boulders on the north side of the Sun Temple that allow a view into the interior of the structure where there are two circular structures. It is possible that the Cliff Palace view toward the setting moon during the lunar standstill passed between these two circular structures like a gun sight, similar to the view at Chimney Rock.
It isn't possible for visitors to see between the circular structures now, but researchers with survey equipment have made this observation.
On the southwest corner of the Sun Temple, there is an unusual depression in the rocks with rays radiating out. The trail guide for the Mesa Top Tour says that Jesse Walter Fewkes thought this small basin was a “solar marker”. It may have been a place to leave offerings to the sun.
On the boulders on the north side of the Sun Temple, there is a small circular basin. Researchers have found about 200 small basins like this at Mesa Verde and it may be a Skywatcher observation point.
During the winter, the Mesa Top Tour road is cleared of snow and there are ten sites to visit. This is a reasonable place to walk when other park trails are snow covered.
