Zion

About this portal

Zion is a cathedral of living stone carved by water over millions of years. The Virgin River, patient and persistent, cut into the Colorado Plateau a gorge of red and golden sandstone whose walls rise more than seven hundred metres. To walk through the Narrows is literally to step inside the river, between narrow walls where light descends filtered as in the nave of a temple. The first Southern Paiute peoples called the region Mukuntuweap — 'the canyon straight as an arrow' — and revered it as a dwelling of spirits. Later, settlers named it Zion, 'celestial refuge', sensing in those towers of rock — Angels Landing, the Thrones of the Patriarchs, the Great White Throne — the presence of the sacred. Zion is the gate of crossing: a sanctuary where water teaches that patience sculpts eternity and rock keeps the silence of ages. To descend into the canyon is to cross a womb of stone and water, to purify oneself in the narrow passage and emerge renewed.

Energetic characteristics

• Sandstone canyon carved by the Virgin River
• Walls rising more than 700 metres
• The Narrows — a walk within the river bed
• Angels Landing — sacred summit of vertiginous views
• Sacred to the Southern Paiute (Mukuntuweap)
• Thrones of the Patriarchs and the Great White Throne
• Named 'Zion' (celestial refuge) by settlers
• National Park on the Colorado Plateau

Connected ley lines