Kukaniloko Birth Stones

Kūkaniloko, meaning “to anchor the cry from within,” is the geographic piko (navel) of Oʻahu. Kūkaniloko was symbolically the most powerful birth site for the island’s high chiefs, among whom Kakuhihewa and Maʻilikākahi were perhaps most famous. Although, not every chief or royal was allowed to enter the site; only those who participated in human sacrifices [6]. The Hoʻolonopahu Heiau associated with the site was later destroyed, as were many others in the area, to make room for sugarcane and pineapple fields in the rich soils where sweet potato and yam once grew in abundance. Chiefly families lived along the slopes of the Waiʻanaes overlooking the plateau and along the shores of Waialua to the north, and many key battles between rivals for control of Oʻahu were also fought on the central plains surrounding Kūkaniloko.

The wide view of the skies from Kūkaniloko might also have made it a sort of Hawaiian Stonehenge. In April 2000, a team from the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy recorded designs and shapes on the stones that could have been used to track the movements of celestial objects for calendrical purposes.