![]() ![]() Settlements lined the bay in the pre-contact period, as do the small residential communities of Nāpōʻopoʻo and Keʻei, today. In their journals, Cook’s crew recorded four “villages” of about 80 houses each along the shoreline around Kealakekua Bay. The British ships, Discovery and Resolution, under the command of Captain James Cook, sailed into Kealakekua Bay on JanuCook was killed at Kaʻawaloa on February 14, 1779. Historically, Kaʻawaloa was the royal burial grounds of Hawaiʻi’s rulers and their families, including Kalaniopuʻu, the ruling chief in power when Captain Cook sailed into Kealakekua Bay. These forty acres of land define the northwest side of Kealakekua Bay. Kaʻawaloa, meaning ‘ the distant ʻawa plant’, is a flat, fan-shaped lava peninsula near sea level, which rises gradually to the edge of the 600-ft Pali Kapu O Keoua. ![]() Kealakekua was selected by the aliʻi as one of the seven royal centers of Kona in the 1700s, because of its sheltered bay and abundance of natural resources. “At the other end of the beach is the Morai, or Oheekeeow (heiau of Hikiau.) A field of Taboo’d ground seperates the Morai from a Village to the s, or rather a continued range of Stragling houses in that direction.” (King Maly) “The Sandy beech forms the West side, behind which is a grove of Coco nut trees & a pond of indifferent water on the N side of this beach lies a Village, & the Well we waterd at, which is close to the Sea & under the high hill.” From Kaʻawaloa south to Palemano Point, the bay measures about one and one-half miles in length and about one mile in width. Kealakekua Bay State Historical Park is comprised of portions of the Kealakekua and Kaʻawaloa ahupuaʻa, which surround Kealakekua Bay. Kealakekua translates as ‘pathway of the gods’ and is one of the most significant historic and cultural places in Hawaiʻi. ![]()
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