Lore
Sleeping Giant, or Nounou Mountain, is a mountain ridge on Kauaʻi in the Nounou Forest Reserve west of Wailua and Kapaʻa. Its shape resembles a reclining human figure, giving rise to its common English name and making it one of the island’s most recognizable landforms. The ridge is closely tied to a Native Hawaiian legend of a giant who, after great labor or overeating, lay down to rest and never awakened, with the mountain itself read as the sleeping body. Today it remains a major landmark, and hiking trails lead to the ridge’s highest point, known as the figure’s forehead.
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Wailua Homesteads, Hawaii · United States
