Kamakahonu
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Kamakahonu, Residence Of King Kamehameha I
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ʻAhuʻena Heiau
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| Location | 75-5660 Palani Road, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii |
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| Coordinates | 19°38′20.42″N 155°59′51.31″W / 19.6390056°N 155.9975861°WCoordinates: 19°38′20.42″N 155°59′51.31″W / 19.6390056°N 155.9975861°W |
| Area | 3.5 acres (1.4 ha) |
| Built | 1812 |
| NRHP Reference # | 66000288 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
| Designated NHL | December 29, 1962 |
Kamakahonu, the residence of Kamehameha I, was located at the north end of Kailua Bay in Kailua-Kona on Hawaiʻi Island.
Kamehameha I (also known as Kamehameha the Great), who unified the Hawaiian Islands, lived out the last years of his life and instituted some of the most constructive measures of his reign (1810–19) here. The residential compound included the personal shrine, ʻAhuʻena heiau, of the King. The name means "temple of the burning altar" in the Hawaiian Language.
His son, the crown prince Liholiho, also lived here, taking the name Kamehameha II. In December 1819, Kalanimoku led an army from here to put down the rebellion of his nephew Kekuaokalani, in the Kuamoʻo Battle, a few miles to the South. A battery of 18 cannon and large stone walls protected the fortress-like enclosure around several houses.
Island Governor "John Adams" Kuakini lived at Kamakahonu. He governed the island when the king was away on state affairs to another island and later when the capitol was moved to Lahaina on the island of Maui in 1820. He later built a more modern house called Huliheʻe Palace on the other side of the beach for entertaining visitors. The bay was called Kaiakeakua in ancient times meaning "sea of the god", but is now called Kailua Bay.
The name ka maka honu means "the turtle eye" in the Hawaiian Language, after a rock in the shape of a turtle that was located to the left of the present beach. It was here, within a year of the Kamehameha's death, that the first American Christian missionaries to the Hawaiʻi arrived on April 4, 1820. The rock where Asa Thurston and Hiram Bingham I landed was later called the "Plymouth Rock of Hawaii".
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