According to the commonly cited Hopi creation account, three worlds existed before the current one.
Hopi mythology describes the present as the Fourth World. In the first world, early beings live in an underground or cave-like environment; they then move into a second world and later a third, where they become more fully human. Each world ends or is abandoned because of disorder, conflict, or moral failure.
Tawa, the sun spirit, is a major creator figure, while Spider Grandmother often guides beings between worlds. To enter the Fourth World, people may emerge through a hollow reed or sipapu. One tradition associates that emergence with the Grand Canyon; another describes a flood and a migration by reed boats.
The details vary among Hopi communities and storytellers, so the names and mechanisms are not identical in every version. Nevertheless, the standard four-world framework makes “three” the fair quiz answer. The current world is not the third; it is the fourth.