Hikueru

Hikueru
	NASA image by Hikueru
Waters	Pacific Ocean
archipelago	Tuamotu Archipelago
Geographical location	17 ° 35 ′ S , 142 ° 39 ′ W Coordinates: 17 ° 35 ′ S , 142 ° 39 ′ W
Number of islands	-
Main island	-
Land area	8 km²
Lagoon area	79 km²
Residents	268 (2007)
	Map of Hikueru

Hikueru is an atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia . The next atoll is the Tekokota atoll, which is 22 km north. Hikeru is oval in shape, 15 km long and 9.5 km wide. The atoll's deep lagoon has no navigable access to the sea. Hikueru is the capital of the Hikueru community .

history

The atoll was discovered by Louis Antoine de Bougainville in 1768 . This is how the island of Domingo de Boenechea was visited in 1774. He named the atoll San Juan .

Jack London describes in his novel "South Sea Tales" a cyclone that swept over Hikeru. This storm, which actually devastated Hikueru and Hao in 1903 , killed 371 people on both atolls.

Tapupati in the northwest of the atoll is the most important place, in 2000 an airfield was created. Important sources of income for the residents are copra production and pearl cultivation . Until the 1970s, Hikueru was a center for deep sea divers.

Web links

Picture and short description ( memento from December 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
Census 2007 ( Memento of February 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF, French)