Honolulu

Honolulu with 983 thousand in the city and metropolitan area (which are coterminous with Oahu Island of the Hawaiian Islands),¹ is centered on the southeast of the island between Pearl Harbor and Diamond Head, in the state of Hawaii. It was made capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii (for the last time) in 1845 and became part of the United States of America when the kingdom was annexed following a coup in 1898. By that time and since it has been the largest city in Oceania outside of Australia and New Zealand.

The tallest buildings as of the summer of 2016 were the two buildings at 801 South Street (450 feet). (A was completed in 2015 and B is topped out but not open.) They replaced the First Hawaii Center (429 feet, 1996). Another notable building is the Waikiki Landmark, a double tower joined at the 260 foot level (320 feet, 1993). The Rainbow Tower has a rainbow mural--the world's largest mosaic--on one side (275 feet, 1968). The Aloha Tower (named for the inscribed word) is a clock tower with an observation deck, and was the tallest building until 1960 (224 feet, 1926). The Royal Hawaiian Hotel (1927) is nicknamed the 'Pink Palace of the Pacific.' The Iolani Palace (1882) was the residence of King Kalakaua and later Queen Lili'uokalani.² Also on the island (and thus within the city, broadly defined) is the Byodo-In Temple, a smaller scale replica of the one in Uji, ⽇夲 (Nippon or Japan).³

The international airport is the twenty-ninth busiest in 'North America' (defined to include the state of Hawaii, with 18.1 million passengers in 2012).⁴

Overlook of the center of Honolulu, Oahu (island (in the Hawaiian Islands), state of Hawaii, United States of America

Historical maps

Footnotes