Moʻokini Heiau is a luakini heiau, a sacrificial temple, in Kohala Historical Sites State Monument near Hawi, and it is a National Historic Landmark. The National Park Service describes it as a living spiritual temple and a sacred site to Native Hawaiians. Tradition says the high priest Moʻokini first built a temple here, and later oral tradition says Paʻao built the present heiau on top of it. Its walls are dry-stacked stone with no mortar, and oral tradition says the basalt for them was passed hand to hand by a line of men from the Niuliʻi area to the east. It was Kamehameha I's war temple, home of his family's war god Ku-ka-ʻili-moku, until the god was moved to Puʻukoholā Heiau. It was spared when royal orders called for heiau to be destroyed. Kahuna Nui Leimomi Moʻokini Lum later lifted the kapu that had kept out everyone but aliʻi and kahuna, and rededicated the heiau to the children of the land and then to the children of the world. Visitors often bring a flower or a lei to leave as an offering of respect; stay off the walls. The road in is rough dirt, four-wheel drive is recommended, and there is no drinking water.
Rough dirt road; four-wheel drive recommended. No drinking water.