The climate is tropical and most of the island is mountainous and uninhabitable. Ponape is surrounded by a girdle of other islands, islets and coral reefs. One of the tiny islands, about as big as the Vatican City, is called Temuen, according to the atlas. Temuen is the site of the mighty ruins of Nan Madol, which occupy nearly the whole of the island and account for its importance and fame, so that Temuen has long been known colloquially as Nan Madol. The ruins of Nan Madol go back to the remote past; but its prehistoric layout has not been dated and the origin of its builders is unknown. These are the historically established dates concerning the island of Ponape and its satellite islets: 1595—Pedro Fernandes de Quiros, a Portuguese, landed from the San Geronimo. The first white men set foot on the island and saw the ruins of Nan Madol. 1686—The whole archipelago became a Spanish possession and was called Carolinas after King Charles II. 1826—The Irishman James O’Connell landed on the island with other survivors of a shipwreck.
