Tabuaeran

Tabuaeran, also Fanning Iceland, an atoll in the northern Line Islands south of Hawaii and is part of the Pacific island nation of Kiribati.

Geography

The atoll was originally named after its discoverer Edmund Fanning American ( 1769-1841 ). It consists of three major islands and numerous other small islets ( motu ). The oval-shaped lagoon is navigable by small vessels by a westernmost passage (English Harbor). On a land area of 33.7 km ² live in nine settlements around 2500 inhabitants. The highest elevation is currently at 4 m above the sea level.

The inhabitants are predominantly Tabuaerans Micronesians that. Of the Gilbert Islands by the company Fanning Iceland Plantations Ltd. as workers for the copra industry in the early 19th century were settled. Administrative headquarters are Paelau ( NAPIA ) in the northwest.

The individual settlements

History

At a distance of 1,450 km from the Hawaiian Islands Tabuaeran is a possible stopover Polynesian settlers on the way to Hawaii. There items were found that could point to an early settlement by Polynesians suspect that may came from the Cook Islands and Tonga. When Captain Edmund Fanning the islands discovered on November 6, 1798 the ship Betsy for the U.S., they were like the rest of the Line Islands uninhabited atolls.

Fanning was first claimed in 1800 by the United States in 1889 and annexed by the United Kingdom. The British established a cable station of their trans-Pacific cable, which was damaged by the 1914 German cruiser Nürnberg. In 1939, the atoll of the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands and in 1979 with the independence of the colony of the Republic of Kiribati.

Gallery

A coconut grove on Tabuaeran

Locals with an outrigger canoe

A sandbar with coral limestones