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The former Ellice Islands, today’s Tuvalu, are located halfway between Australia and Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. Tuvalu is an island country. The capital is the atoll Funafuti.
If you look at the map, you can see that Tuvalu is located east of Papua New Guinea and north of New Zealand. The Solomon Islands, Nauru, Kiribati, Tokelau, Samoa, Fiji and Vanuatu are among other islands in the area. Tuvalu, like many other small islands, is part of Polynesia.
Tuvalu is the fourth smallest state in the world. Only Vatican City, Monaco and Nauru are even smaller. The area of Tuvalu is 25.6 square kilometers. It consists of nine island atolls and about 100 scattered small islets. “Tuvalu” means “Eight Islands”. By 1949, only eight of the nine atolls were inhabited by humans. Even if the land area is tiny, the water area is even larger and covers about 1.3 million square kilometers.
The nine atolls are called: Funafuti – here is also the seat of government in the village of Vaiaku -, Nanumanga, Nanumea, Niutao, Nui, Nukufetau, Nukulaelae, Niulakita and Vaitupu. The islands are between 3.9 square kilometers and 0.5 square kilometers in size and there are only a few hundred people living on each island.
The highest elevation of Tuvalu is no more than five meters high. Tuvalu is also one of the countries that is at risk of sinking into the sea due to global warming. This is facilitated by the destruction of coral reefs, which for a long time were able to protect the islands from breakwaters. Since a large part of these reefs has been destroyed, the danger to the small atolls has increased. And as long as the sea level continues to rise, the threat remains.
Why do people not visit Tuvalu?
Is Tuvaluan English speaking country?
Is Tuvalu a US territory?
What is Tuvalu known for?
