Vahitahi
Vahitahi | ||
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NASA image of Vahitahi | ||
Waters | Pacific Ocean | |
archipelago | Tuamotu Archipelago | |
Geographical location | 18 ° 46 ′ S , 138 ° 49 ′ W | |
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Number of islands | - | |
Land area | 2.5 km² | |
Lagoon area | 7.4 km² | |
Residents | 83 (2007) | |
Map of Vahitahi |
Vahitahi , also called Vaitake , is an atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago in the Pacific Ocean . Politically it belongs to French Polynesia and there to the municipality of Nukutavake . Vahitahi is about 50 kilometers north of the main island of Nukutavake .
The oval atoll consists of a larger, crescent-shaped island in the northeast, a smaller island in the west and numerous smaller motus . The shallow, central lagoon is completely enclosed by a coral reef . The land area is about 2.5 km², the area of the lagoon 7.4 km². Only the smaller island in the west is inhabited, the 83 inhabitants (as of 2007) live mainly in the main town of Mohitu . Vahitahi airfield is also located there.
Vahitahi was discovered for Europe by the French navigator Louis Antoine de Bougainville in 1768 and originally named Les Quatre Facardins by him (after the Druze prince Fachr ad-Dīn II ) . James Cook reached the atoll a year later and named it Lagoon Island .
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Institut Statistique de Polynésie Française (ISPF) - Recensement de la population 2007 ( Memento of February 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF, French)
- ^ Johann Jakob Egli : Nomina geographica. Language and factual explanation of 42,000 geographical names of all regions of the world. Friedrich Brandstetter, 2nd edition Leipzig 1893, p. 521 ( Lagoon Island )