Mauka · the slope
The slope behind the refuge.
Above Hōnaunau the land climbs into agricultural terraces — taro, breadfruit, sweet potato — the upland that fed the people who lived behind the sanctuary's walls.
Mid · royal grounds
The chiefs' compound and the great wall.
Just north of the puʻuhonua proper lies the royal compound — house platforms, fishponds, and ceremonial spaces. Separating compound from refuge is the Pā o Keoua, a wall ten feet thick, built of dry-stacked basalt with no mortar.
Open this section in the map →Coast · puʻuhonua
Hale o Keawe and the place of refuge.
In old Hawaiian law, a person who broke kapu — a sacred prohibition — was condemned to death unless they could reach a puʻuhonua, a place of refuge. At Hōnaunau, sanctuary was inside the great wall. Hale o Keawe — a thatched temple holding the bones of ali'i — anchored the spiritual authority that made the refuge work.
Reef · the bay
Two Step and the reef-flat.
Just south of the park sits a small natural step into the water known to snorkelers as Two Step. The reef-flat is shallow, broad, and unusually intact — protected by the cultural status of the surrounding shore.
Ocean · spinner dolphins
Spinner dolphins rest offshore by day.
Naiʻa — spinner dolphins — feed offshore at night and return to the shallow waters off Hōnaunau to rest by day. NOAA asks swimmers and boaters to leave them undisturbed.