Fakarava

Fakarava
	NASA image by Fakarava
Waters	Pacific Ocean
archipelago	Tuamotu Archipelago
Geographical location	16 ° 17 ′ S , 145 ° 37 ′ W Coordinates: 16 ° 17 ′ S , 145 ° 37 ′ W
Number of islands	41
Main island	Rotoava
Land area	16 km²
Lagoon area	1 153 km²
Residents	806 (2012)
	View of the Fakarava lagoon

Fakarava is an atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago in the Pacific Ocean , about 490 km northeast of Tahiti .

geography

The nearest atoll is Toau , 14 km northwest. With an area of 60 × 25 km and an area of almost 1,200 km², Fakarava is the largest atoll in the municipality of the same name. Politically it belongs to French Polynesia and there to the municipality of the same name Fakarava . The lagoon is 1,153 km² one of the largest in Polynesia , the land area is, however, only about 16 square kilometers. Fakarava consists of numerous elongated motus , especially in the north and east of the atoll, which rise only a few meters above sea level. The atoll's lagoon has two navigable passages, Garuae the largest navigable lagoon passage in all of Polynesia, and the southern passage, Tumakohuna .

history

The Aranui 3 in the Fakarava lagoon

Fakarava was discovered for Europe on October 10, 1820 by the Baltic German officer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen , he named it Wittgenstein .

The residents of Fakarava were Christianized by the Belgian Jesuit Father Honoré Laval in 1849. The first church was completed in 1850.

population

The atoll had 806 inhabitants in 2012, who are spread over several villages. The main town is Rotoava in the northeast, which in the 2002 census comprised 433 (or 63 percent) of the 688 inhabitants of the atoll.

Population development for the years 1971–2012
census	1971	1977	1983	1988	1996	2002	2007	2012
Fakarava	?	204	224	248	467	688	797	806

Infrastructure and tourism

An airfield was opened on Fakarava in 1995. It has the IATA airport code FAV and the ICAO code NTGF.

The island has several hotels and is a popular destination for tourists, especially divers. From time to time the atoll is visited by cruise ships.

Fakarava, together with other atolls in the Fakarava municipality, has received the status of a biosphere reserve through UNESCO .

gallery

Fakarava - Hirifa Beach
Fakarava Passe Sud, biosphere reserve

Web links

Information about Fakarava, including map (French)
Private page with pictures of Fakarava (French)
Picture and short description ( memento from December 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
Map of the atoll

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b Institut de la statistique de la Polynésie française (ISPF): Recensement de la population 2012. Chiffres clés sur la population: Subdivision, commune, commune associée (2) . (PDF; 1.3 MB). Retrieved October 24, 2014 (French).
↑ Institut de la statistique de la Polynésie française (ISPF): Recensement Général de la Population du 7 November 2002 . RET1c - Population par commune et commune associée aux recensements de 1971 à 2002 , p. 170 (PDF; 80 kB). Retrieved October 24, 2014 (French).
↑ Institut de la statistique de la Polynésie française (ISPF): Recensement de la population 2007 , p. 7 (PDF; 396 kB). Retrieved October 24, 2014 (French).

[Census2012-1] A ^b Institut de la statistique de la Polynésie française (ISPF): Recensement de la population 2012. Chiffres clés sur la population: Subdivision, commune, commune associée (2) . (PDF; 1.3 MB). Retrieved October 24, 2014 (French).

[2] Institut de la statistique de la Polynésie française (ISPF): Recensement Général de la Population du 7 November 2002 . RET1c - Population par commune et commune associée aux recensements de 1971 à 2002 , p. 170 (PDF; 80 kB). Retrieved October 24, 2014 (French).

[3] Institut de la statistique de la Polynésie française (ISPF): Recensement de la population 2007 , p. 7 (PDF; 396 kB). Retrieved October 24, 2014 (French).