Travel-World Photography
Monument Valley is located in Utah, east of Lake Powell, close to the Arizona state line. The name means "valley of the rocks", is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of sandstone buttes, the largest reaching 300 m above the valley floor. The valley is considered sacred by the Navajo Nation, the Native American people within whose reservation it lies.
The area is part of the Colorado Plateau. The elevation of the valley floor ranges from 1500 to 1 800 m above sea level. The floor is largely siltstone, deposited by the meandering rivers that carved the valley. The valley's vivid red color comes from iron oxide exposed in the weathered siltstone. The darker, blue-gray rocks in the valley get their color from manganese oxide. The buttes are clearly stratified, with three principal layers. The valley includes large stone structures, including the "Eye of the Sun".
Monument Valley has been featured in many forms of media since the 1930s. Director John Ford used the location for a number of his Westerns films.
