Tabwakea | |
|---|---|
Village | |
 Tabwakea Church in 2014. | |
 | |
  Tabwakea | |
| Coordinates: 2°01′05″N157°29′16″W / 2.018084°N 157.487729°W | |
| Country |  Kiribati |
| Local council | Kiritimati |
| Population (2020) | |
| • Total | 3,537 |
| Time zone | UTC+14 |
Tabwakea is the largest village in Kiribati, located on the island of Kiritimati, within the archipelago of Line Islands.
Tabwakea means turtle in Gilbertese, which refers to the island's first name given by James Cook, Turtles Island, which later became Christmas Island (Kiritimati).
In 2020 Tabwakea was inhabited by 3,537 people, making it the largest village on Kiritimati and in the whole Line Islands. [1]
Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean. Its permanent population is over 119,000 as of the 2020 census, with more than half living on Tarawa atoll. The state comprises 32 atolls and one remote raised coral island, Banaba. Its total land area is 811 km2 (313 sq mi) dispersed over 3,441,810 km2 (1,328,890 sq mi) of ocean.
Kiribati consists of 32 atolls and one island in an expanse of ocean equivalent in size to the contiguous United States. The islands are scattered such that Kiribati has territory located in each of the four hemispheres. The islands of Kiribati lie roughly halfway between Hawaii and Australia in the Micronesian and Polynesian regions of the South Pacific. The three main island groupings are the Gilbert Islands, Phoenix Islands, and Line Islands. On 1 January 1995 Kiribati moved the International Date Line to include its easternmost islands and make it the same day throughout the country.
The following article outlines transport in Kiribati.
Kiritimati is a Pacific Ocean atoll in the northern Line Islands. It is part of the Republic of Kiribati. The name is derived from the English word "Christmas" written in Gilbertese according to its phonology, in which the combination ti is pronounced /s/.
The Line Islands, Teraina Islands or Equatorial Islands are a chain of 11 atolls and coral islands in the central Pacific Ocean, south of the Hawaiian Islands. Eight of the atolls are parts of Kiribati. The remaining three—Jarvis Island, Kingman Reef, and Palmyra Atoll—are territories of the United States grouped with the United States Minor Outlying Islands. The Line Islands, all of which were formed by volcanic activity, are one of the longest island chains in the world, stretching 2,350 km (1,460 mi) from northwest to southeast. One of them, Starbuck Island, is near the geographic center of the Pacific Ocean. Another, Kiritimati, has the largest land area of any atoll in the world. Only Kiritimati, Tabuaeran, and Teraina have a permanent population. Besides the 11 confirmed atolls and islands, Filippo Reef is shown on some maps, but its existence is doubted.
Malden Island, sometimes called Independence Island in the 19th century, is a low, arid, uninhabited atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, about 39 km2 (15 sq mi) in area. It is one of the Line Islands belonging to the Republic of Kiribati. The lagoon is entirely enclosed by land, though it is connected to the sea by underground channels, and is quite salty.
Tabuaeran, also known as Fanning Island, is an atoll that is part of the Line Islands of the central Pacific Ocean and part of the island nation of Kiribati. The land area is 33.73 square kilometres, and the population in 2015 was 2,315. The maximum elevation is about 3 m (10 ft) above high tide.
Teraina is a coral atoll in the central Pacific Ocean and part of the Northern Line Islands which belong to Kiribati. Obsolete names of Teraina are New Marquesas, Prospect Island, and New York Island. The island is located approximately 4.71° North latitude and 160.76° West longitude. Teraina differs from most other atolls in the world in that it has a large freshwater lake, an open lens, concealed within its luxuriant coconut palm forest; this is the only permanent freshwater lake in the whole of Kiribati.
UTC+14:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +14:00. This is the earliest time zone on Earth, meaning that areas in this zone are the first to see a new day, and therefore the first to celebrate a New Year. It is also referred to as the "latest time zone" on Earth, as clocks in it always show the 'latest' time of all time zones.
London is a village in Kiribati, located on the island of Kiritimati, within the archipelago of Line Islands. It is the administrative capital of Kiritimati.
Poland is a village in Kiribati, located on the westernmost part of the island of Kiritimati, within the archipelago of Line Islands.
Cassidy International Airport is an airport located north of Banana, a settlement on Kiritimati island in Kiribati. Until 2018, it was the only airport in the Kiribati part of the Line Islands with an IATA or ICAO code.
The bokikokiko, Kiritimati reed warbler or Christmas Island warbler is a species of warbler in the family Acrocephalidae. It is found only on Kiritimati and Washington Island (Kiribati).
Banana is a village in Kiribati, located on the island of Kiritimati, within the Archipelago of Line Islands. It is located close to Cassidy International Airport.
Coral Sun Airways is the younger of two Kiribati airlines, established in January 2009. The airline operated domestic service to all 17 airports in the Gilbert Islands, but stopped any regular service and offers only on-demand and chartered flights. In 2015 it purchased one new, larger aircraft, capable of flying to the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands. There was no domestic nor international service to these remote archipelagos to the east of the Gilbert Islands, having 8,800 and 20 inhabitants, respectively, except for one weekly flight on Fiji Airways between Honolulu and Kiritimati (Christmas) Island among the Line Islands, and Air Kiribati domestic flights between the Line Islands.
The wildlife of Kiribati is the flora and fauna of its islands.
The Central Polynesian tropical moist forests is a tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregion in Polynesia. It includes the northern group of the Cook Islands, the Line Islands in Kiribati, and Johnston Atoll, Jarvis Island, Palmyra Atoll, and Kingman Reef which are possessions of the United States.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kiribati refers to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in Kiribati. In 1976 the first branch was organized in Tarawa. As at the 2020 Census, there were 6,720 people declaring as LDS members. According to LDS church, as of year-end 2022, there were 22,210 members in 43 congregations, making it the largest body of LDS Church members in Micronesia. Kiribati also has the most LDS Church members per capita in Micronesia, and the third most members per capita of any country in the world, behind Tonga and Samoa.
The Coral reefs of Kiribati consists of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, Banaba, which is an isolated island between Nauru and the Gilbert Islands. The islands of Kiribati are dispersed over 3.5 million km2 (1.4 million sq mi) of the Pacific Ocean and straddle the equator and the 180th meridian, extending into the eastern and western hemispheres, as well as the northern and southern hemispheres. 21 of the 33 islands are inhabited. The groups of islands of Kiribati are:
Protected areas of Kiribati include marine protected areas managed by the Environment and Conservation Division, of the Kiribati Ministry of Environment, Lands and Agricultural Development. Kiribati, in partnership with the New England Aquarium and Conservation International (CI), manages the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), which is a World Heritage Site that was established in 2006, and is the second largest of the world's marine protected areas. The U.S. administered Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument is currently the world's largest designated marine protected area (MPA), and is to the north and north-east of the PIPA.
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