High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is located in the southwestern region of the U.S. state of Colorado, and is managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior. Created by a Presidential proclamation on June 9, 2000, the monument encompasses 176,056 acres (71,247 ha) and surrounds three of the four separate sections of Hovenweep National Monument, which is administered by the National Park Service. Canyons of the Ancients was set aside to preserve and protect the largest concentration of archaeological sites in the United States. As of 2005, over 6,000 individual archeological sites had been identified within the monument.