Faaite
Faaite, or Faaiti is an atoll of the Tuamotus in French Polynesia. It is located to the north of Anaa Atoll. The total surface of the atoll is Its dry land area is . Its length is and its width . The total population is 401 inhabitants. Faaite's inner lagoon has a navigable channel to the ocean. The main village is Hitianau, with a total population of 246. History. The first recorded sighting of the atoll by Europeans was by the Spanish expedition of Pedro Fernández de Quirós on 11 February 1606. It was charted as "Decena" (ten in Spanish ). John Turnbull rediscovered it in 1802. Turnbull was the first retailer of the Pacific who used the route of Tahiti to Hawaii. Russian oceanic explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen visited Faaite in 1820 on the ships "Vostok" and "Mirni". He named this atoll "Miloradovich". On September 2, 1987 six islanders were thrown into a fire and burned alive in an exorcism ceremony incited by an American religious group, the "Charismatic Renewal Cult". Administration. Administratively Faaite belongs to the commune of Anaa, which includes the inhabited atoll of Faaite and the uninhabited atolls of Tahanea and Motutunga.