This impressive canyon, located within the western half of Zion National Park in southwestern Utah, United States, is carved by the North Fork of the Virgin River. It is part of the Navajo sandstone Colorado Plateau. The beginning of the canyon (also known as Little Zion, Mukuntuweap, Mu-Loon'-Tu-Weap, and Straight Cañon ) is usually delineated as the Temple of Sinawava, a vertical-walled natural amphitheater nearly 910 m deep. The canyon actually begins much further upstream, however, and runs southward about 26 km through the Narrows to reach the Temple. he canyon was named by settler Isaac Behunin, who named the canyon after a "place of peace" mentioned in 2 Samuel 5:7 of the Bible. John Wesley Powell (U.S. soldier, geologist, explorer of the American West, professor at Illinois Wesleyan University) is credited with the name Mukuntuweap, supposedly the native name of the canyon. The canyon was first declared a national monument in 1909 and a a national park in 1919.