Nanumea
| Nanumea | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Waters | Pacific Ocean |
| Archipelago | Nanumea Atoll |
| Geographical location | 5 ° 41 ′ 0 ″ S , 176 ° 7 ′ 0 ″ E |
| length | 4.6 km |
| width | 600 m |
| surface | 2.4 km² |
| Highest elevation | 12 m |
| Residents | 660 (2002) 275 inhabitants / km² |
| main place | Lolua |
Nanumea is the largest and most southerly island in the Nanumea Atoll of the same name in the South Pacific island state of Tuvalu .
Nanumea is about 4.6 kilometers long and a maximum of 600 meters wide. On the western arm is Lolua , the main town of the atoll.
During World War II , the US military built a runway suitable for bombers on the eastern, sparsely populated arm of Nanumea . Today this is overgrown and hardly recognizable as a flight runway.
history
According to legend, Tefolaha was the first person to set foot on Nanumea, armed with a black wooden spear. His grandson, Lapi, defeated the giant Toulapoupou with this spear called Kaumaile around 800 years ago and thus freed and pacified the island - according to oral tradition.
For the inhabitants of Nanumea, the spear is a sacred object, a relic from the time when their island was settled. It came back to Nanumea from a British museum and has recently been scientifically examined. The age of approx. 880 years was confirmed. Casuarina ( Casuarina equisetifolia ), which is widespread in Australia, Thailand, the Philippines and the Fiji Islands , but does not occur in the vicinity of Nanumea, was determined as the wood species .