Wailua Complex of Heiaus
The Wailua Complex, a National Historic Landmark, was once the center of chiefly power on the island. It contains the remains of several important structures: places of worship (heiau), places of refuge (puʻuhonua), and sites related to royal births. The most important sites are:
- Hikinaakalā (Rising of the Sun) Heiau, which includes the Hauola place of refuge (puʻuhonua) and the Kiʻi Pōhaku ancient petroglyphs, at the mouth of the river adjacent to Lydgate State Park
- Malae, also known as Malaea or Makaukiu or Mana Heiau, a huge, rectangular luakini heiau almost 400 feet long on the south side of the river just above Highway 56
- Holoholokū Heiau, also known as Kalaeokamanu, adjacent to the pōhaku hoʻohānau (birthing stone) and pōhaku piko (navel/umbilical stone), where women of high rank would give birth and bury their afterbirth and umbilical cords
- Poliʻahu (also spelled Poliahu) Heiau, a large luakini heiau high on the narrow ridge between ʻŌpaekaʻa Stream and Wailua River
- Bellstone (on the same ridge), used to announce important events, such as royal births
Of these, only Holoholokū has been largely restored.
Read more about this topic: Wailua River State Park
Famous quotes containing the word complex:
“When distant and unfamiliar and complex things are communicated to great masses of people, the truth suffers a considerable and often a radical distortion. The complex is made over into the simple, the hypothetical into the dogmatic, and the relative into an absolute.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)