The Sun Dagger Filming Locations

Anna Sofaer discovered the now famous sun dagger in Chaco Canyon on the top of the 135 meter tall Fajada Butte in 1977. She first found the spirals, which are pierced by the light of the daggers at noon, when she went to photo the area and discovered them in shadow behind 3 slabs. Returning the next day, one week before the summer solstice, she happened to see the light of the dagger that pierced the center of the main spiral within the 18 minute window that it reveals itself. She was an artist at the time, but became emersed in trying to understand and discover the intention and significance of this dagger that became more fascinating the more she inquired. She asks astronomers, physicists, and finally an architect to help her to understand how the horizontal movement of the sun at solstice created a dagger of light that went vertically, from top to bottom, against the wall it shone on. In this documentary, Anna climbs once more to the top of this steep butte, rattlesnakes mere feet away, with a professional climber, Jane McGrath, and physicist Rolf Sinclair. She digs into the mystery of how the two-ton slabs of rock came to be positioned upright, how the slabs were shaped to create the dagger, and seeks the wisdom and culture of and from the natives in the area to attempt at answers about this incredible and mysterious civilization. This is just the beginning of her incredible journey at unearthing the incredible Chacoan society and their deep understanding of astronomy and the world around them.