Mesa Verde National Park is a United States National Park located in southwestern Colorado. It was established in 1906 to protect some of the best-preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the country. The park covers an area of 52, 485 acres and features a variety of cliff dwellings, mesa-top villages, and other archaeological sites. The name 'Mesa Verde' comes from the Spanish words for 'green table, ' referring to the green landscape of the area.