, aboriginals of America inhabited Grand Canyon one thousand years ago. The ancient rock paintings found in the Canyon were created by Indians about 3 thousand years ago. In 1540 Grand Canyon was found by group of the Spanish conquistadors led by Garcia Lopez de Cardenasa which looked for gold in this area. Several Spanish soldiers accompanied by Indians of the tribe of Hopi tried to go down on a canyon bottom, but they had to return because of a lack of drinking water. Since then the canyon was not visited by Europeans more than 2 centuries. In 1776, two Spanish priests, accompanied by little group of soldiers, in search of a way from Santa Fe to California traveled along Grand Canyon. The first scientific expedition to Grand Canyon headed by professor John Weasley Powell was held in 1869. Powell studied and described a canyon.
Grand Canyon (Grand Canyon) is one of the deepest canyons in the world. It is on the Kolloradsky plateau in the American State of Arizona. In the territory of Grand Canyon there is a national park of the same name. Canyon length — 446 km. Depth — up to 1600 m. Since 1979 the Grand Canyon is included into the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List.
Because of features of zonality of living creatures and plants in the territory of Grand Canyon not so there is a lot of. The most widespread plants are the fir-tree, a fir and a yellow pine. The special endemic species of squirrels lives in a jungle of yellow pines. In the dense coniferous forests growing near the upper bound of a canyon, chernokhvosty deer meet.
The climate on the plateau and in the bottom of a canyon sharply differs — when above about fifteen degrees of heat, at the bottom of the gorge, among the heated stones temperature rises to plus of forty.
Grand Canyon is one of the most unusual geological objects of our planet therefore it is very carefully studied. In it is mute it is possible to find 4 geological era of Earth, a variety of the rocks and caves containing rich geological, biological and archaeological material. The canyon is considered one of the best examples of an erosion of soils. Initially the Colorado River flowed on the plain, but from-zadvizheniya earth crust about 65 million years ago the Colorado Plateau rose. As a result of a raising of the plateau the tilt angle of a watercourse of Colorado changed owing to what its speed and ability to destroy the breed lying on its way increased. First of all, the river washed away the top limestones, and then was accepted to deeper and ancient sandstones and slates. And Grand Canyon was formed. There was it about 5 — 6 million years ago.
Grand Canyon was transformed approximately during 10 million years. Now at the bottom of the gorge it is possible to find the most ancient breeds of earth crust. On the gorge with a speed of 20 km/h the Colorado River rushes. During a day of Colorado carries away in the sea of a priblizitelnopolmillion of tons of rocks. Stones and sand, borne the river, increase the destroying effect which had by Colorado. Because of it Grand Canyon continues to grow also now.