- Tahanea
Tahanea Atoll is an atoll of the Tuamotu Archipelago in
French Polynesia . It is located 12 km to the east ofFaaite Atoll.Tahanea Atoll is quite large. It measures 48 km in length with a maximum width of 15.2 km. The southern reef fringing the atoll is wider than the northern one, but the largest islands are on the narrower northern rim. Tahanea has a wide and deep lagoon with a surface of 545 km². There are three deep, navigable, passes into the lagoon, which are called Motupuapua, Teavatapu and Otao.
Tahanea is uninhabited, but it is visited occasionally by islanders from neighboring atolls.
History
The first recorded European to sight Tahanea was Spanish navigator
Domingo de Boenechea 1774 on ship "Aguila". He named this atoll "San Julián".Russian oceanic explorer
Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen visited Tahanea in 1820 on ships "Vostok" and "Mirni". He named this atoll "Chichagov" .Administration
Tahanea belongs to the commune of
Anaa that also includes the associated commune of Faaite with the atoll of Faaite and the uninhabited atolls ofTahanea andMotutunga .References
* [http://www.oceandots.com/pacific/tuamotu/tahanea.htm]
* [http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-BucExpl-t1-body-d17.html Spanish voyages]
* [http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-BucExpl-t1-body-d19-d2-d7.html Bellingshausen]External links
* [http://www.pacific-image.pf/pages/boutic/dboutic_cdrom_sp132.html Atoll list (in French)]
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