Nuku Hiva
Nuku Hiva | ||
---|---|---|
Nuku Hiva - Taiohae Bay | ||
Waters | Pacific Ocean | |
Archipelago | Marquesas | |
Geographical location | 8 ° 50 ′ S , 140 ° 10 ′ W | |
|
||
length | 25 km | |
width | 17 km | |
surface | 339 km² | |
Highest elevation |
Mont Tekao 1224 m |
|
Residents | 2660 (2007) 7.8 inhabitants / km² |
|
main place | Taiohae | |
Mission map from 1896 |
Nuku Hiva (old name: Nukahiva , Federal Iceland (Joseph Ingraham), Baux ) is in the Pacific Ocean located island of volcanic origin. The original name of the island "Te Fenua Enata" means "The earth of men" .
geography
Nuku Hiva belongs geographically to the northern group of the Marquesas Islands and politically to French Polynesia . With an area of around 340 km² and 2,660 inhabitants, it is the largest and most populous island in the Marquesas.
The settlements are in the lush east and south of the island. The north-west, in the lee of Mont Tekao (1,224 m), is arid . The center of the island is formed by the wooded Toovii plateau , which is around 800 meters high . The island has steep, inaccessible stretches of coastline, as well as sandy bays lined with palm trees that invite you to swim.
Taiohae
The largest settlement and administrative center of the Marquesas is Taiohae at the foot of the 864 meter high Mont Muake . The large bay of Taiohae (formerly: Port Anna Maria) forms one of two small islands (Matauapuna or Sentinelle de l'Est in the east and Motu Nui or Sentinelle de l'Ouest in the west) protected port, which is often used by circumnavigators as a stopover becomes. From time to time cruise ships also dock here .
The modern church of Notre Dame , seat of the diocese of Taiohae o Tefenuaenata , is built of different colored stones from six Marquesas Islands. At the eastern edge of the village, traditional huts and ceremonial platforms with tikis were recreated by local artists for the Marquesas Festival in 1999. There is a road to Nuku Hiva Airport in the northwest.
Others
About 15 kilometers southwest of Taiohae is the Hakaui Valley with several house and ceremonial platforms and the 350 meter high Ahuii waterfall (also called Vaipo waterfall). Some other important, partially restored places of worship are in the south of the island, in the Taipivai Valley and in the north, near Hatiheu Bay , the favorite place of the writer Robert Louis Stevenson . A statue of the Virgin Mary stands on a 300 meter high, steep basalt cone above the bay .
Nuku Hiva is the setting of the novel Taipi by Herman Melville .
Exile
The Second French Republic under the later Napoleon III. designated Nuku Hiva as a place of simple deportation in a Political Deportation Act . Several revolutionaries of the June uprising in 1848 were exiled here with their families in 1850 and 1851 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c go7seas: Cruises - Taiohae (Nuku Hiva) / Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia. Retrieved October 29, 2018 .