A couple make their way through a passage between the walls of the Kinishba Ruins. It was once a village with 500 ground-floor rooms.

Doug Kreutz / Arizona Daily Star

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KINISHBA RUINS — Seven centuries ago, this place might have seemed like a grand stone metropolis in a high lonesome landscape.

The ruins site — near the town of Fort Apache on lands of the White Mountain Apache Tribe — was once a village with 500 or more ground-floor rooms, some of them standing two or three stories high. At its peak, around A.D. 1325, the prehistoric pueblo may have been home to 800 to 1,000 people.

A visit to the partly rebuilt structure, which is a national historic landmark, offers an up-close view into the distant past.

A flat loop trail, about one-third of a mile long, winds around and through parts of the ruins — passing sun-baked stone walls, open plazas and a ceremonial room known as a kiva.

Along the way, watch for — but don't remove — pieces of pottery made by inhabitants of the village.

To reach Kinishba from Tucson, take Arizona 77 north, past Oracle, to Globe. Continue northeast on U.S. 60, past the Salt River Canyon, to a right-hand turnoff for Arizona 73. Follow that route to the town of Fort Apache. Proceed to the Fort Apache Historic Park, where you'll pay a $5 fee and get directions to the nearby Kinishba site.

Information: 1-928-338-4525.