Kitadaitōjima

Kita- Daitō (Japanese北大 东 岛, -jima/-shima, literally " North Daitō Island ", formerly North Borodino Island ) is the second largest and northernmost island of the Japanese Daitō Islands in the Philippine Sea. Administratively, the island is part of Okinawa Prefecture, where it forms, together with the uninhabited island of Oki- Daitō, the community Kitadaito (北大 东村).

Geography

The island is located 9 kilometers north of Minami- Daitō, the largest island of the archipelago, as well as about 360 kilometers east of Naha on Okinawa, the seat of the prefecture. Like all Daitō Islands is also Kita- Daitō an upscale atoll with a steep cliff coast of limestone - the former fringing reef of the atoll - as well as a deeper level - the former lagoon - the interior of the island. Kita- Daitō has a length of 4.85 km, a circumference of 13.52 km and has an area of ​​11.94 km ². The island is surrounded by a coral reef on the coast reaches a height of up to 74 meters above the sea. The 676 (as of February 1, 2014) inhabitants live in a village in the center of the island.

• Views

On the upscale Riffkranz

History

It is possible that originally uninhabited islands Kita and Minami- Daitō were discovered already at July 28, 1587 by the Spaniard Pedro de Unamuno and baptized Islas sin Probecho. Despite the wrong coordinates a sighting of the British Captain John Meares of 5 April 1788 who baptized the islands Grampus Isles, as secured applies. On 2 July 1820, the two close together islands was rediscovered by the Russian lieutenant Sachar Ponafidin, named after his ship Borodino and determines their position correctly. 1899 began the Japanese settlement of the island; subsequently began the mining of guano and the cultivation mainly of sugar cane. 1971 Airport (: KTD, ICAO code: IATA code Rork ) was in the east of the island opened with a 1500 m long runway.