"Honauanu Bay"
Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Park in the background.
Collection of the National Park Service
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The restored walls and platforms of the sanctuary and the mortuary of ancient chiefs, features of the Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Park.

Pu'uhonua were sanctuaries where fugitives could find safety from those pursuing them. Little is known about the conditions and terms which governed them, but it's believed that after some penance or adjudicated reconciliation a fugitive could depart without fear. The best known is Pu'uhonua o Honaunau, the sanctuary at Honaunau Bay, within the Ahupua'a of Honaunau, in the South Kona district of Hawai'i Island, now partially restored and preserved as the Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Park.