![cover image](https://wikiwandv2-19431.kxcdn.com/_next/image?url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Bandelier_Kiva.jpg/640px-Bandelier_Kiva.jpg&w=640&q=50)
Kiva
Room used by Puebloans for religious rituals and political meetings / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A kiva is a space used by Puebloans for rites and political meetings, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, "kiva" means a large room that is circular and underground, and used for spiritual ceremonies and a place of worship.
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Bandelier_Kiva.jpg/640px-Bandelier_Kiva.jpg)
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Kiva.jpg/640px-Kiva.jpg)
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/GreatKiva.jpg/640px-GreatKiva.jpg)
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Aztec_Ruins_National_Monument_Great_Kiva.jpg/640px-Aztec_Ruins_National_Monument_Great_Kiva.jpg)
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Puerco_Pueblo_kiva%2C_Petrified_Forest_National_Park.jpg/640px-Puerco_Pueblo_kiva%2C_Petrified_Forest_National_Park.jpg)
![A drawing of Chacoan round room features](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/Chacoan_round_room_features.png/640px-Chacoan_round_room_features.png)
Similar subterranean rooms are found among ruins in the Southwestern United States, indicating uses by the ancient peoples of the region including the ancestral Puebloans, the Mogollon, and the Hohokam.[1] Those used by the ancient Pueblos of the Pueblo I Period and following, designated by the Pecos Classification system developed by archaeologists, were usually round and evolved from simpler pit-houses. For the Ancestral Puebloans, these rooms are believed to have had a variety of functions, including domestic residence along with social and ceremonial purposes.[2]