Photo by Peter Fench
The Island of Hawaiʻi, also called the Big Island or Hawaiʻi Island (pronounced /həˈwaɪ.i/ in English and [həˈwɐiʔi] or [həˈvɐiʔi] in Hawaiian), is a volcanic island in the U.S. State of Hawaii in the North Pacific Ocean. With an area of 4,028 square miles (10,432 km²), it is larger than all of the other Hawaiian Islands combined and is the largest island in the United States.
Hawaiʻi is said to have been named for Hawaiʻiloa, the legendary Polynesian navigator who first discovered it. However, other accounts attribute the name to the legendary land or realm of Hawaiki, a place from which the Polynesians originated (see also Manua), the place where they go in the afterlife, the realm of the gods.
The Island of Hawaiʻi is administered as the County of Hawaiʻi. The county seat is Hilo. It is estimated that as of the year 2008, the island had a resident population of 201,109.
History - Hawaiʻi was the home island of Pai`ea Kamehameha, called by Westerners Kamehameha the Great, who by 1795 had united most of the Hawaiian Islands under his rule after several years of warfare and conquest. He gave his kingdom the name of his native island (by which the islands now are known collectively), Hawaiʻi. Captain James Cook, who made the Western world aware of these "Sandwich isles", was killed on Hawaiʻi in Kealakekua Bay.
夏威夷島（夏威夷语：Hawai'i）是夏威夷群島中最大的島嶼，又稱大島（Big Island）；位於島鍊最南端，有豐富的火山活動，設有火山國家公園，華人又稱火山島。全島屬夏威夷縣範圍。主要都市有東側的希洛與西側的科納市（Kona，又稱Kailua-Kona）。
島上以生產夏威夷果仁（Macadamia Nuts）與科納咖啡（Kona Coffee）為主要農產事業。
島上並有高度超過4000公尺的冒納凱亞火山，設有天文台群。台灣與美國合作的宇宙微波背景輻射陣列望遠鏡（Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy，AMiBA [1]）則設在此島的冒納羅亞火山。
歷史 - 夏威夷島自1810年被卡美哈梅哈一世統治，是夏威夷王國的開創者。他原是夏威夷島的一個酋長，經過多年征戰，於1810年統一。
References sources : wikipedia
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