Keaīwa Heiau State Recreation Area, Ancient Hawaiian healing temple and recreation area in Aiea, United States.
Keaīwa Heiau State Recreation Area is the ruin of a 16th-century stone temple at the top of ʻAiea Heights on Oʻahu, with walls about 4 ft high and 5 ft wide built of faced one-foot stones filled with rubble. The grounds hold camping and picnic areas and the 4.8-mile Aiea Loop Trail, which passes stands of Norfolk Island pine, lemon eucalyptus and, at Puʻu ʻUaʻu, native koa and ʻōhiʻa lehua.
Keaīwa Heiau was built in the 16th century by Kakuhihewa, the 15th ruling chief of Oʻahu. Its stone walls, about 100 by 160 feet and averaging 4 feet high, enclosed a temple where kahuna trained haumana in prayer, fasting and laʻau lapaʻau healing. Foresters replanted most of the surrounding area in the late 1920s, and the site later became a state recreation area.
This site functioned as a healing center where traditional healers worked with local plants to treat illnesses and pass down knowledge to apprentices. The place remains connected to Hawaiian practices of caring for people through natural remedies and learning.
The park is free and open daily, from 7 am to 7:45 pm between April 1 and Labor Day and to 6:45 pm from after Labor Day to March 31. The Aiea Loop Trail runs 4.5 miles (7.2 km) and takes about 2.5 hours; it has one steep switchback stretch and turns very muddy after rain. Camping requires an advance permit.
The wreckage of a B-24 aircraft that went down in 1944 lies along the Aiea Loop Trail, not far from the trail's high point at Puu Uau. Hikers can see the remains of the military plane where it crashed.
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