Rangiroa

Template: Infobox Atoll / Maintenance / height Missing

Rangiroa is the largest atoll of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia. Rangiroa is (translated: " on sky "), also called Ra'iroa for clarity and length of the lagoon.

Geography

Rangiroa is located in the southern Pacific Ocean about 350 km northeast of Tahiti.

The atoll is 80 km long and 5-32 km wide. The 1,600 km ² lagoon has a maximum depth of 35 m. It is surrounded by a ring of 240 motus (islands, total land area of ​​79 km ²) and about 100 narrow passages. In the northwest, near the villages, there are two deeper, more suitable for shipping transits. Rangiroa is the second largest atoll in the world after Kwajalein.

Management

Rangiroa is a " commune associée " ( borough ) of the municipality of Rangiroa. In the northwest of the atoll villages Avatoru and Tiputa are ( main town with the local administration and the post office). Between these villages, 10 km away there is a small airport ( IATA code RGI).

Population

According to the census of 2002, 2,334 inhabitants spread over three villages:

They live from tourism, fisheries ( for export to Tahiti), of the pearl fishing and copra. Rangiroa has a well developed tourist infrastructure for the Tuamotus, and is very popular with scuba divers. The municipality also includes the atolls of Rangiroa and Tikehau Mataiva and the island Makatea.

History

Rangiroa was probably settled around the 10th century by Polynesians. It was discovered on 18 April 1616 by the Dutchman Jacob Le Maire, the first Europeans to have inhabited the atoll in 1851.

Traffic

The Rangiroa Airport is 5.5 km southeast of the village and can Avatoru with its 2.1 km long slope next to private machines also accommodate smaller commercial aircraft. Roads for car traffic, there is only in and around the three villages in the north, the other parts of the island are sparsely inhabited or uninhabited and separated by the numerous sea admissions; important means of transport is the boat here. The atoll is run from time to time of cruise ships that bring their passengers with motorized inflatable boats ashore.

• Views

Passage into the lagoon at Avatoru

Workers a pearl farm

One of the countless Motus