1.
Hana, Hawaii
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Hāna is a census-designated place in Maui County, Hawaii, United States. The population was 1,235 at the 2010 census, Hana is located at the eastern end of the island of Maui and is one of the most isolated communities in the state. It is reached mainly via the Hana Highway, a long, winding, 52-mile-long highway along Mauis northern shore, like most of Hawaii, Hana was probably first settled between 500 and 800 AD by Polynesian peoples. The first sugarcane plantation in the area was established by George Wilfong in 1849, by 1946, however, the last sugarcane plantation had closed, leading plantation workers to move mostly to the west side of Maui. That same year saw the opening of the Ka-uiki Inn, today known as the Hotel Travaasa - Hana, the winding, famously scenic Hana Highway was completed in 1926. Originally paved with gravel, it provided the first land vehicle access to the town, hanas population peaked in the first half of the twentieth century, with a population of about 3,500. Hana is located at 20°46′12″N 155°59′39″W, the Hana Airport offers flights with regular service to the Big Island, Kahului, and Oahu. According to the United States Census Bureau, this CDP has an area of 11.7 square miles. Near Hana are natural areas and several swimming holes in the Haleakala National Park, hanas climate is hot and wet year round, typical of a tropical rainforest. As of the census of 2010, Hana had 1,235 residents,390 households, the 2010 population density was 105.6 people per square mile. There were 506 housing units at a density of 48. 2/sq mi. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9. 8% of the population,29. 5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9. 7% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.17, and the family size was 3.99. The median age was 35.2 years, for every 100 females there were 105.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 111.9 males, as of 2000, the median income for a household in the CDP was $50,833, and the median income for a family was $54,167. Males had an income of $26,146 versus $22,969 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $14,672, about 5. 6% of families and 8. 6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10. 4% of those under age 18 and 3. 8% of those age 65 or over. It is open 24/7 for urgent care and emergency access
2.
Maui
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The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at 727.2 square miles and is the 17th-largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the State of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui Countys four islands, bigger than Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, in 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444, third-highest of the Hawaiian Islands, behind that of Oʻahu and Hawaiʻi Island. Kahului is the largest census-designated place on the island with a population of 26,337 as of 2010 and is the commercial and financial hub of the island, Wailuku is the seat of Maui County and is the third-largest CDP as of 2010. Other significant places include Kīhei, Lahaina, Makawao, Pukalani, Pāʻia, Kula, Haʻikū, native Hawaiian tradition gives the origin of the islands name in the legend of Hawaiʻiloa, the navigator credited with discovery of the Hawaiian Islands. According to that legend, Hawaiʻiloa named the island of Maui after his son, the earlier name of Maui was ʻIhikapalaumaewa. The Island of Maui is also called the Valley Isle for the isthmus between its northwestern and southeastern volcanoes and the numerous large valleys carved into both mountains. Mauis diverse landscapes are the result of a combination of geology, topography. Each volcanic cone in the chain of the Hawaiian Islands is built of dark, iron-rich/quartz-poor rocks, several of the volcanoes were close enough to each other that lava flows on their flanks overlapped one another, merging into a single island. Maui is such a volcanic doublet, formed from two shield volcanoes that overlapped one another to form an isthmus between them, the older, western volcano has been eroded considerably and is cut by numerous drainages, forming the peaks of the West Maui Mountains. Puʻu Kukui is the highest of the peaks at 5,788 feet. The larger, younger volcano to the east, Haleakalā, rises to more than 10,000 feet above sea level, the eastern flanks of both volcanoes are cut by deeply incised valleys and steep-sided ravines that run downslope to the rocky, windswept shoreline. The valley-like Isthmus of Maui that separates the two volcanic masses was formed by sandy erosional deposits, although considered to be dormant by volcanologists, Haleakalā is certainly capable of further eruptions. Maui is part of a larger unit, Maui Nui, that includes the islands of Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Molokaʻi. During periods of reduced sea level, including as recently as 20,000 years ago and this, and the extreme insularity of the Hawaiian Islands account for the strong marine influence on Mauis climate. Gross weather patterns are determined by elevation and orientation towards the Trade winds. Mauis rugged, irregular topography produces marked variations in conditions, air swept inland on the Trade winds is shunted one way or another by the mountains, valleys, and vast open slopes. This complex three-dimensional flow of air results in striking variations in speed, cloud formation. Maui displays a unique and diverse set of conditions, each of which is specific to a loosely defined sub-region of the island
3.
Kealakekua Bay
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Kealakekua Bay is located on the Kona coast of the island of Hawaiʻi about 12 miles south of Kailua-Kona. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places listings on the island of Hawaii in 1973 as the Kealakekua Bay Historical District, the bay is a marine life conservation district, a popular destination for kayaking, scuba diving, and snorkeling. Settlement on Kealakekua Bay has a long history, hikiau Heiau was a luakini temple of Ancient Hawaii at the south end of the bay, at coordinates 19°28′31″N 155°55′9″W, associated with funeral rites. The large platform of volcanic rock was originally over 16 feet high,250 feet long, the sheer cliff face called Pali Kapu O Keōua overlooking the bay was the burial place of Hawaiian royalty. The name means forbidden cliffs of Keōua in honor of Keōua Nui and he was sometimes known as the father of kings since many rulers were his descendants. The difficulty in accessing the cliff kept the exact burial places secret, the village of Kaʻawaloa was at the north end of the bay in ancient times, where the Puhina O Lono Heiau was built, along with some royal residences. The name of the means the distant Kava, from the medicinal plant used in religious rituals. The name of the bay comes from ke ala ke kua in the Hawaiian Language which means the gods pathway and this area was the focus of extensive Makahiki celebrations in honor of the god Lono. Another name for the north of the bay was hale kii, due to the large number of wood carvings. Although there are theories that Spanish or Dutch sailors might have stopped here much earlier and he and his crews on the Resolution and Discovery sighted Kealakekua Bay on the morning of January 17,1779. He estimated several thousand people lived in the two villages, on January 28, he performed the first Christian service on the islands, for the funeral of a crew member who had died. Cook had entered the bay during Makahiki and this was a traditionally peaceful time of year, so he and his men were welcomed and given food. Cook and his crew stayed for weeks, returning to sea shortly after the end of the festival. After suffering damage during a storm, the ships returned two weeks later, on February 14 and this time relations were not as smooth. After the theft of one of Resolutions small boats by a local native Hawaiian, a skirmish ensued during which Cook was killed, near the spot where he had first set foot on the island. Cooks death was depicted in a series of paintings Death of Cook, the monument is accessed by a one-hour hike from the road or by crossing the bay by boat. When Kalaniʻōpuʻu died in 1782, his oldest son Kiwalaʻo officially inherited the kingdom, a younger son, Keōua Kuahuʻula, was not happy about this and provoked Kamehameha. The forces met just south of the bay at the battle of Mokuʻōhai, Kamehameha won control of the west and north sides of the island, but Keōua escaped
4.
James Cook
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Captain James Cook FRS RN was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager and joined the Royal Navy in 1755 and he saw action in the Seven Years War, and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River during the siege of Quebec. This helped bring Cook to the attention of the Admiralty and Royal Society, in three voyages Cook sailed thousands of miles across largely uncharted areas of the globe. He mapped lands from New Zealand to Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean in greater detail, as he progressed on his voyages of discovery he surveyed and named features, and recorded islands and coastlines on European maps for the first time. He displayed a combination of seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, physical courage, Cook was attacked and killed while attempting to kidnap the native chief of Hawaii during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific in 1779. He left a legacy of scientific and geographical knowledge which was to influence his successors well into the 20th century, and numerous memorials worldwide have been dedicated to him. James Cook was born on 7 November 1728 in the village of Marton in Yorkshire and baptised on 14 November in the church of St Cuthbert. He was the second of eight children of James Cook, a Scottish farm labourer from Ednam in Roxburghshire, in 1736, his family moved to Airey Holme farm at Great Ayton, where his fathers employer, Thomas Skottowe, paid for him to attend the local school. In 1741, after five years schooling, he work for his father. For leisure, he would climb a hill, Roseberry Topping, enjoying the opportunity for solitude. Cooks Cottage, his parents last home, which he is likely to have visited, is now in Melbourne, having moved from England and reassembled, brick by brick. In 1745, when he was 16, Cook moved 20 miles to the village of Staithes. Historians have speculated that this is where Cook first felt the lure of the sea while gazing out of the shop window. After 18 months, not proving suitable for work, Cook travelled to the nearby port town of Whitby to be introduced to friends of Sandersons, John. The Walkers, who were Quakers, were prominent local ship-owners in the coal trade and their house is now the Captain Cook Memorial Museum. Cook was taken on as a merchant navy apprentice in their fleet of vessels. His first assignment was aboard the collier Freelove, and he spent several years on this and various other coasters, sailing between the Tyne and London. As part of his apprenticeship, Cook applied himself to the study of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, navigation and his three-year apprenticeship completed, Cook began working on trading ships in the Baltic Sea
5.
Hawaii
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Hawaii is the 50th and most recent state to have joined the United States of America, having received statehood on August 21,1959. Hawaii is the only U. S. state located in Oceania and it is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean. Hawaii is the only U. S. state not located in the Americas, the state encompasses nearly the entire volcanic Hawaiian archipelago, which comprises hundreds of islands spread over 1,500 miles. At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the eight main islands are—in order from northwest to southeast, Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui, and the Island of Hawaiʻi. The last is the largest island in the group, it is called the Big Island or Hawaiʻi Island to avoid confusion with the state or archipelago. The archipelago is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania, Hawaii has over a million permanent residents, along with many visitors and U. S. military personnel. Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaii is the 8th-smallest and the 11th-least populous, but the 13th-most densely populated of the fifty U. S. states. It is the state with an Asian plurality. The states coastline is about 750 miles long, the fourth longest in the U. S. after the coastlines of Alaska, Florida, the state of Hawaii derives its name from the name of its largest island, Hawaiʻi. A common Hawaiian explanation of the name of Hawaiʻi is that was named for Hawaiʻiloa and he is said to have discovered the islands when they were first settled. The Hawaiian language word Hawaiʻi is very similar to Proto-Polynesian *Sawaiki, cognates of Hawaiʻi are found in other Polynesian languages, including Māori, Rarotongan and Samoan. According to linguists Pukui and Elbert, lsewhere in Polynesia, Hawaiʻi or a cognate is the name of the underworld or of the home, but in Hawaii. A somewhat divisive political issue arose in 1978 when the Constitution of the State of Hawaii added Hawaiian as an official state language. The title of the constitution is The Constitution of the State of Hawaii. Article XV, Section 1 of the Constitution uses The State of Hawaii, diacritics were not used because the document, drafted in 1949, predates the use of the okina and the kahakō in modern Hawaiian orthography. The exact spelling of the name in the Hawaiian language is Hawaiʻi. In the Hawaii Admission Act that granted Hawaiian statehood, the government recognized Hawaii as the official state name. Official government publications, department and office titles, and the Seal of Hawaii use the spelling with no symbols for glottal stops or vowel length
6.
Temple
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A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. It is typically used for such buildings belonging to all faiths where a specific term such as church. These include Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism among religions with many modern followers, the form and function of temples is thus very variable, though they are often considered by believers to be in some sense the house of one or more deities. Typically offerings of some sort are made to the deity, and other rituals enacted, the degree to which the whole population of believers can access the building varies significantly, often parts or even the whole main building can only be accessed by the clergy. Temples typically have a building and a larger precinct, which may contain many other buildings. The word comes from Ancient Rome, where a templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest and it has the same root as the word template, a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out on the ground by the augur. Templa also became associated with the places of a god or gods. Hindu temples are large and magnificent with a rich history, there is evidence of use of sacred ground as far back as the Bronze Age and later the Indus Valley Civilization. Hindu temples have been built in countries around the world, including Cambodia, Nepal, Mauritius, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Great Britain. They include the structures called stupa, wat and pagoda in different regions, Temples in Buddhism represent the pure land or pure environment of a Buddha. Traditional Buddhist temples are designed to inspire inner and outer peace, a Jain temple is the place of worship for Jains, the followers of Jainism. Some famous Jain temples are Shikharji, Palitana Jain Temples, Ranakpur Jain Temple, Shravan Belgola, Dilwara Temples, Jain temples are built with various architectural designs. Jain temples in North India are completely different from the Jain temples in South India, additionally, a Manastambha is a pillar that is often constructed in front of Jain temples. The temple of Mesopotamia derived from the cult of gods and deities in the Mesopotamian religion and it spanned several civilizations, from Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, and Babylonian. Ancient Egyptian temples were meant as places for the deities to reside on earth, indeed, the term the Egyptians most commonly used to describe the temple building, ḥwt-nṯr, means mansion of a god. A gods presence in the temple linked the human and divine realms and these rituals, it was believed, sustained the god and allowed it to continue to play its proper role in nature. They were therefore a key part of the maintenance of maat, maintaining maat was the entire purpose of Egyptian religion, and thus it was the purpose of a temple as well. Ancient Egyptian temples were also of significance to Egyptian society
7.
Hawaiian religion
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Hawaiian religion encompasses the indigenous religious beliefs and practices of the Native Hawaiians. It is polytheistic and animistic, with a belief in deities and spirits, including the belief that spirits are found in non-human beings and objects such as animals, the waves. Hawaiian religion originated among the Tahitians and other Pacific islanders who landed in Hawaiʻi between 500 and 1300 AD, today, Hawaiian religious practices are protected by the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. Traditional Hawaiian religion is unrelated to the modern New Age practice known as Huna, Hawaiian religion is polytheistic, with four deities most prominent, Kāne, Kū, Lono and Kanaloa. Other notable deities include Laka, Kihawahine, Haumea, Papahānaumoku, in addition, each family is considered to have one or more guardian spirits known as ʻaumakua that protected family. The Kumulipo is divided two sections, night, or pō, and day, or ao, with the former corresponding to divinity. This, in turn, illustrates the transition of mankind from being symbols for the gods into the keeper of these symbols in the form of idols, the Kumulipo was recited during the time of Makahiki, to honor the god of fertility, Lono. The kahuna were well respected, educated individuals that made up a social class that served the King. Selected to serve many practical and governmental purposes, Kahuna often were healers, navigators, builders, prophets/temple workers and they also talked with the spirits. Kahuna Kūpaʻiulu of Maui in 1867 described a ritual to heal someone ill due to hoʻopiʻopiʻo. He said a kapa was shaken, then, If the evil spirit suddenly appears and possesses the patient, then he or she can be immediately saved by the conversation between the practitioner and that spirit. Pukui and others believed kahuna did not have mystical transcendent experiences as described in other religions, although a person who was possessed would go into a trance-like state, it was not an ecstatic experience but simply a communion with the known spirits. Kapu refers to a system of taboos designed to separate the pure from the potentially unclean. Thought to have arrived with Pāʻao, a priest or chief from Tahiti who arrived in Hawaiʻi sometime around 1200 AD, the spiritually pure or laʻa, meaning sacred and unclean or haumia were to be separated. During times of war, the first two men to be killed were offered to the gods as sacrifices, other Kapus included Mālama ʻĀina, meaning caring of the land and Niʻaupiʻo. The Hawaiian islands are all children of Papa, Wākea and Hoʻohokukalani so basically meaning that they are siblings of the Hawaiian chiefs. Second child of Wākea and Hoʻohokukalani became the first Aliʻi Nui and this came to be called Niʻaupiʻo, the chiefly incest to create the godly child. Punishments for breaking the kapu could include death, although if one could escape to a puʻuhonua, kāhuna nui mandated long periods when the entire village must have absolute silence
8.
Cult image
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In the practice of religion, a cult image is a human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents. Cultus, the outward religious formulas of cult, often centers upon the treatment of cult images, religious images cover a wider range of all types of images made with a religious purpose, subject, or connection. In many contexts cult image specifically means the most important image in a temple, kept in an inner space, as opposed to what may be many other images decorating the temple. The term idol is often synonymous with cult image, but may be used especially of an image believed not just to depict or represent a deity or spirit. Sometimes the image is believed to have its own powers, to grant wishes or otherwise affect the world, in cultures where idolatry is not viewed negatively, the word idol is not generally seen as pejorative, such as in Indian English. Cult of images is the practice of worshipping or venerating religious or cult images representing divine figures, common in a number of ancient religions, the practice continues most prominently today in Hinduism. Assertions by others outside the group concerned that such beliefs are held by the group are however common. Cult images were a presence in Ancient Egypt, and still are in modern-day Kemetism. A common example of an image in ancient Egypt was the Apis Bull. The term is confined to the relatively small images, typically in gold. These images usually showed the god in their sacred barque or boat, the Parthenon contained a cult image of Athena, the Greek goddess of civilization and the noble side of war. This cult image, known as Athena Parthenos, was created by Phidias and this cult image was used for religious sacrifices at this Athenian temple. Hinduism allows for many forms of worship and therefore it neither prescribes nor proscribes worship of images, in Hinduism, a murti typically refers to an image that expresses a Divine Spirit. Meaning literally embodiment, a murti is a representation of a divinity, made usually of stone, wood, or metal, hindus consider a murti worthy of serving as a focus of divine worship only after the divine is invoked in it for the purpose of offering worship. The depiction of the divinity must reflect the gestures and proportions outlined in religious tradition, members of Abrahamic religions identify cult images as idols and their worship as idolatry, the worship of hollow forms. The avoidance of such a degrading paradox was expressed in the early Christian idea of miraculous icons that were not made by human hands, acheiropoietoi. Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians make an exception for the veneration of image of saints, the word idol entered Middle English in the 13th century from Old French idole adapted in Ecclesiastical Latin from the Greek eidolon. Greek eidos was employed by Plato and the Platonists to signify perfect immutable forms, the local tribes, of the Arabian peninsula, came to this centre of commerce to place their idols in the Kaaba, in the process being charged tithes
9.
Sacrifice
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Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals to a higher purpose, in particular divine beings, as an act of propitiation or worship. While sacrifice often implies the ritual killing of an animal, the term offering can be used for bloodless sacrifices of food or artifacts, for offerings of liquids by pouring, the term libation is used. The Latin term sacrificium derived from Latin sacrificus, which combined the concepts sacra, the Latin word sacrificium came to apply to the Christian eucharist in particular, sometimes named a bloodless sacrifice to distinguish it from blood sacrifices. In individual non-Christian ethnic religions, terms translated as sacrifice include the Indic yajna, the Greek thusia, the Germanic blōtan, the term usually implies doing without something or giving something up. But the word also occurs in metaphorical use to describe doing good for others or taking a short-term loss in return for a greater power gain. Scholars such as René Girard have theorized that scapegoating may account for the origins of sacrifice, animal sacrifice is the ritual killing of an animal as part of a religion. It is practiced by adherents of religions as a means of appeasing a god or gods or changing the course of nature. It also served a social or economic function in those cultures where the portions of the animal were distributed among those attending the sacrifice for consumption. Animal sacrifice has turned up in almost all cultures, from the Hebrews to the Greeks and Romans, Ancient Egyptians and it is against their religion for Egyptians to sacrifice animals, except for sheep, bulls, calves, male calves and geese. Animal sacrifice is practiced today by the followers of Santería and other lineages of Orisa as a means of curing the sick. However, in Santeria, such animal offerings constitute a small portion of what are termed ebos—ritual activities that include offerings, prayer. Christians from some villages in Greece also sacrifice animals to Orthodox saints in a known as kourbània. The practice, while publicly condemned, is often tolerated, according to Walter Burkert, a scholar of sacrifice, Greek sacrifices derived from hunting practices. Hunters, feeling guilty for having killed another living being so they could eat and survive, the primary evidence used to suggest this theory is the Dipolieia, which is an Athenian festival, in limited circulation, during which an ox was sacrificed. The protagonist of the ritual was an ox, which it had, at one point. According to his theory, the killer of the ox eased his conscience by suggesting that everybody should participate in the killing of the sacrificial victim. In the expansion of the Athenian state, numerous oxen were needed to feed the people at the banquets and were accompanied by state festivals, the hecatomb became the general designation for the great sacrifices offered by the state. These sacrificial processions of hundreds of oxen remove the original ties, Human sacrifice was practiced by many ancient cultures
10.
Kamehameha II
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Kamehameha II was the second king of the Kingdom of Hawaii. His birth name was Liholiho and full name was Kalaninui kua Liholiho i ke kapu ʻIolani and it was lengthened to Kalani Kaleiʻaimoku o Kaiwikapu o Laʻamea i Kauikawekiu Ahilapalapa Kealiʻi Kauinamoku o Kahekili Kalaninui i Mamao ʻIolani i Ka Liholiho when he took the throne. He was born circa 1797 in Hilo, on the island of Hawaiʻi and it was originally planned that he would be born at the Kūkaniloko birth site on the island of Oʻahu but the Queens sickness prevented travel. Kamehameha I, then, put him in the care of Queen Kaʻahumanu, jean Baptiste Rives, a Frenchman about his age, arrived on the islands in the early 19th century. Rives taught the royal princes some English and French, becoming a close friend, other companions included Charles Kanaʻina, Kekūanāoʻa and Laʻanui. His first name meant royal hawk while his name, Liholiho is a contraction of Kalaninuiliholiho. Liholiho officially inherited the throne upon Kamehameha Is death in May 1819, however, Queen Kaʻahumanu had no intention to give him actual leadership. Liholiho, young and inexperienced, had no other choice, Kaʻahumanu became the first Kuhina Nui of Hawaii. He was forced to take on merely a ceremonial role, administrative power was to be vested in Kaʻahumanu and he took the title King Kamehameha II, but preferred to be called ʻIolani, which means heavenly hawk. What followed was the disbanding of the class of priest. Kamehameha I had bequeathed his war god Kūkaʻilimoku and his temples to his cousin Kekuaokalani, Kekuaokalani demanded that Liholiho withdraw his edicts against the Hawaiian priesthood, permit rebuilding of the temples, and dismiss both Kalanimōkū and Kaʻahumanu. The first Christian missionaries arrived only a few months later in the Hawaiian Islands and he never officially converted to Christianity because he refused to give up four of his five wives and his love of alcohol. He married several relatives of high rank, but he was the last Hawaiian king to practice polygamy and his favorite wife was his half-sister Kamāmalu. Kīnaʻu was his wife who would later remarry and become Kuhina Nui. Princess Kalani Pauahi was his niece by his half-brother Pauli Kaōleiokū and she later remarried and gave birth to Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani. Kekāuluohi was half-sister of Kamāmalu and Kīnaʻu through their mother Kaheiheimālie who was another of his fathers wives, Princess Kekauʻōnohi was Liholihos niece and granddaughter of Kamehameha I, and would later become royal governor of the islands of Maui and Kauaʻi. He was known to be impulsive, for example, on November 16,1820 he bought a Royal Yacht known as Cleopatras Barge for 8000 piculs of sandalwood, estimated to be worth about US$80,000 at the time. It had been sold a few years before for $15,400 by the Crowninshield family of Salem and he tried to gain favor with missionaries by offering free passage on the opulent ship, and regularly entertained foreign visitors with their choice of alcoholic beverages
11.
Necker Island (Hawaii)
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Necker Island is a small island in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It is located at 23°34′35″N 164°42′0″W in the Pacific Ocean,155 miles northwest of Nihoa and 8 miles north of the Tropic of Cancer. It contains important prehistoric sites of the Hawaiian culture and is part of the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge within the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument. The United States Census Bureau reports its land area as 45.193 acres, the island is rocky with steep sides and has very little soil. Its highest elevation is 277 feet, the island is named after Jacques Necker, a finance minister of Louis XVI. Few signs of human habitation have been found. However, the island contains 33 stone shrines and stone artifacts much like those found in the main Hawaiian Islands, because of this, many anthropologists believe that the island was a ceremonial and religious site. According to the myths and legends of the people of Kauai, according to the legend, the Menehune settled on Necker after being chased off Kauai by the stronger Polynesians and subsequently built the various stone structures there. Visits to the island are said to have started a few hundred years after the main Hawaiian Islands were inhabited, french explorer Jean-François de La Pérouse was the first European to visit the island, in 1786. The island is named after Jacques Necker, the islands were formally annexed in 1894 by the Provisional Government of Hawaii. Because of the usage by Native Hawaiians as a ceremonial and religious site in Ancient Hawaii. List of volcanoes in the Hawaiian – Emperor seamount chain Evenhuis, Neal L. Eldredge, natural History of Nihoa and Necker Islands. Bishop Museum Bulletin in Cultural and Environmental Studies, No.1, the Columbia Gazetteer of North America. Archived from the original on 2002-03-29
