Mount Taylor: Sacred Volcano of the Southwest

The peak rising to the north is Mount Taylor, one of the four sacred mountains that define the Dine homeland, which many call the Navajo Nation. The Dine know it as Tsoodzil, the Turquoise Mountain, one of the four pillars holding their world in place.

Geologically it is one of the great volcanic cones of the Colorado Plateau, reaching about eleven thousand three hundred feet above sea level. Its last major eruption was roughly two million years ago, though some sources report later flank eruptions, leaving lava flows visible across the surrounding landscape.

The mountain is also sacred to the Acoma, Laguna, and Zuni peoples. In two thousand eight, the New Mexico Cultural Properties Review Committee listed it as a Traditional Cultural Property, adding legal protection to land where uranium mining had previously been permitted.