Kin Klizhin and Kin Ya’a

      Tower kivas consist of three to four circular kivas stacked on top of each other and built within the rectangular great house structures. They are extremely rare in the region, with only two recognized sites: Kin Klizhin and Kin Ya’a (Van Dyke 1999:493; 2008:206). Tower kivas likely stood 12 m above the ground, creating a highly visible structure that was observable from miles in every direction. These structures are typically incorporated into the great house, unlike great kivas, which are often found separate. It is important that tower kivas are not mistaken with elevated kivas, which are single-storied structures found upon boulders or second stories (Marshall et a. 1979:16; Van Dyke 2008:206).

Kin Klizhin

      Kin Klizhin is an outlier found 6 km to the southwest of West Mesa, which rests facing east-southeast on a sandy knoll at the center of the Kin Klizhin ephemeral wash. Archaeologists believe it was built around AD 1087 through tree ring dating methods (Bannister et al. 1970:24). It features 8 ground floor rooms, 6 second story rooms, two enclosed kivas and a tower kiva. This tower kiva stands three stories high, measures 5 m in diameter, housed within a 6.5 m by 6 m enclosure. Presently, the kiva stands 9 m above the ground surface (Marshall et al. 1979:70). The combination of its elevated location and the multistoried kiva enables this great house to be visible from a considerable distance.

      Kin Klizhin is visible from many shrines atop South Mesa and West Mesa, which includes Site 1088 and the shrines discussed in Hayes and Windes (1975) analysis. It is also intervisible with the Tsin Kletsin great house. Therefore, one can determine that it is included in the line-of-sight network. In addition, through GIS viewshed analysis, Robinson (2007) determined that the presence of a 9 m tower kiva at the exact location of Kin Klizhin would result in an intervisible connection with Hosta Butte. Alternately, the viewshed analysis for an individual standing on the ground would not afford such a view. This demonstrates the importance of intervisibility with landmarks such as Hosta Butte, as previously observed with Site 1572, 1088, and the Kin Bineola Shrine.

Kin Ya’a

      The Kin Ya’a great house can be found on the north side of the Red Mesa Valley, facing southeast. The tower kiva, found at centered at the rear of the structure, stood four stories tall, with an estimated original height of 12 m. This great house is visible from shrine 706 on south mesa, which was included in Hayes and Windes’ 1975 study. This positioning is understood as deliberate by archaeologists, since movement of the great house and a shorter height of the tower kiva would cause this intervisible link to become compromised. In addition, the height of the Kin Ya’a tower kiva makes intervisibility with Huerfano Mesa possible. An individual standing on the ground would not be able to see this landmark.