Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Marquesas Islands (/ m ɑːr ˈ k eɪ s ə s / mar-KAY-səss; French: Îles Marquises or Archipel des Marquises or Marquises; Marquesan: Te Henua ʻEnana (North Marquesan) and Te Fenua ʻEnata (South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean.
The fauna of the Marquesas Islands is species-poor and is limited to land and sea birds, insects, butterflies and spiders. The island is named after a genus of canopy spider (Linyphiidae) that is endemic to Ua Pou. There are no animals that are dangerous to humans. Nono flies, a type of black fly, which appear in the interior, are usually ...
Nuku Hiva (sometimes spelled Nukahiva or Nukuhiva) is the largest of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas country of France in the Pacific Ocean. It was formerly also known as Île Marchand and Madison Island. Herman Melville wrote his book Typee based on his experiences in the Taipivai valley in the eastern part of Nuku Hiva.
Horse of the Marquesas Islands in Hiva Oa. Hiva Oa is the largest and most fertile of the southern Marquesas islands and second only to Nuku Hiva in size. Similar to all the larger Marquesas, Hiva Oa features steep cliffs abruptly rising from the ocean to a rugged interior spine of volcanic mountains, ridges, and deep, isolated valleys.
Nautical charts of Fatu Hiva, Marquesas Islands (1920) From a Western perspective, the first explorer to discover Fatu Iva was the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña , on 21 July 1595. It was the first island in the archipelago that he saw, but he was unable to land there because he could not find a safe anchorage.
It is located in the Meau Valley near the capital centre on the island of Nuku Hiva. [1] The construction of the cathedral began in 1973 on the site of an earlier 19th-century church by the same name. The new cathedral opened in 1977. It is the largest church on the Marquesas Islands. [2]
Fatu Huku, also known as Fatu Uku, is a small island in the Marquesas Islands, approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) north of Hiva Oa.Fatu Huku is less than 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) long and 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) wide and has an area of about 1.3 square kilometres (0.50 sq mi)
Robert Louis Stevenson visited the Marquesas in 1888, and wrote about his experiences and impressions there in 1900, in a book called In the South Seas. Thor Heyerdahl wrote his book Fatu Hiva during a year-long stay on that island. The island group is also mentioned in passing in the Crosby, Stills & Nash song, "Southern Cross".