Based on current day Pueblo religious practices, archeologists think of the Anasazi kivas (Hopi language for "old house") as sacred chambers for ceremonies. In the kachina cult (ancestral spirits who bring rain), the Anasazi worshiped the sun, fire and serpents for fertility and agricultural productivity. The kiva is a subterranean room reached by ladder through an opening in the roof. The esoteric symbolism of the hole refers to a man leaving the womb of the earth. These sacred places were always separate from the living quarters, with an average of two kivas per village. From Ellie Crystal
