Friday, September 18, 2026 Search My Trip EnglishChinese
World news · travel · culture
Taiwan The Taiwan Times
Taiwan's window to the world

Phoenix Islands

Kiribati

The Phoenix Islands, or Rawaki, are a group of eight atolls and two submerged coral reefs that lie east of the Gilbert Islands and west of the Line Islands in the Polynesia sub-region of Oceania, in the central Pacific Ocean north of Samoa. They are part of the Republic of Kiribati. Their combined land area is 28 square kilometres (11 mi2). The only island of any commercial importance is Canton Island (also called Abariringa). The other islands are Enderbury, Rawaki (formerly Phoenix), Manra (formerly Sydney), Birnie, McKean, Nikumaroro (formerly Gardner), and Orona (formerly Hull). The islands had no permanent inhabitants until European colonization, and the current inhabitants descend from the Micronesian Gilbertese people despite the islands' location in the Polynesian Triangle. The Phoenix Islands Protected Area, established in 2008, is one of the world's largest protected areas and is home to about 120 species of coral and more than 500 species of fish. The Phoenix Islands are uninhabited, except for a few families who live on Canton Island. Historically, the Phoenix Islands have been considered part of the Gilberts island group (sometimes known as the Kingsmill island group). Geographically, Baker Island and Howland Island, two unincorporated territories of the United States that lie to the north of the Phoenix Islands, could be considered part of the same island group as

Data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).

Other archipelagos in Kiribati