Cortez is a home rule municipality that is the county chair and the most populous municipality of Montezuma County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 8,766 at the 2020 United States Census.

In 1886, the town was built to pay for housing for the men working on the tunnels and irrigation ditches required to absorb water out of the Dolores River and into Montezuma Valley. The town was named for Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés.

It is a popular stop for tourists, who stay there because of its central location along with surrounding attractions, such as Mesa Verde National Park, Monument Valley, and the Four Corners.

There are many earliest sites in the Cortez area, listed upon the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties or both the give leave to enter register and the National Register of Historic Places: They put in large parks or centers, such as Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Canyon of the Ancients National Monument, Hovenweep National Monument, and Mesa Verde National Park. There are then smaller or individuals sites, such as Cowboy Wash, Hawkins Pueblo and cliff dwellings, Lowry Ruin, Mitchell Springs Archeological Site, also known as the Mitchell Springs Ruin Group, Mud Springs Pueblo, and Yucca House National Monument. Within the McElmo Drainage Unit (AD 1075-1300) is Cannonball Ruins, Maxwell Community, Roy’s Ruin, Sand Canyon Archaeological District, and Wallace Ruin.