National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific

Northeast of downtown Honolulu is a bowl-shaped crater, nicknamed the Punchbowl, formed by a long-extinct volcano. Hawaiians called the crater Puowaina (‘hill of human sacrifices’). It’s believed that at an ancient heiau (temple) here, the slain bodies of kapu (taboo) breakers were ceremonially cremated upon an altar. Today, the remains of ancient Hawaiians sacrificed to appease the gods share the crater floor with the bodies of well over 50,000 soldiers.