Piula Cave Pool (also known as Fatumea Pool) is a natural freshwater pool by the sea beneath the historic

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

Chapel at Piula on the north coast of

Upolu Upolu is an island in Samoa, formed by a massive basaltic shield volcano which rises from the seafloor of the western Pacific Ocean. The island is long and in area, making it the second largest of the Samoan Islands by area. With approximate ...

island in

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

. It is situated at

Lufilufi Lufilufi is a historical village situated on the north coast of Upolu island in Samoa. The village is part of the electoral constituency (''Faipule District'') Anoamaa East which is within the larger political district of Atua. The village's popula ...

in the political district of

Atua Atua are the gods and spirits of the Polynesian people such as the Māori or the Hawaiians (see also ). The literal meaning of the Polynesian word is "power" or "strength" and so the concept is similar to that of '' mana''. Many of the atua ...

, 26 km east from the capital

Apia Apia () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Samoa. It is located on the central north coast of Upolu, Samoa's second-largest island. Apia falls within the political district (''itūmālō'') of Tuamasaga. The Apia Urban A ...

, along the scenic coastal road. Entry is by the main road through the painted stone wall of Piula Theological College with steps leading down to the pool. A popular swimming hole for locals and visitors, the pool is formed by a natural spring flowing out of a

cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...

and out to sea. Inside the main cave opening on the north side is a short submerged tunnel leading to a smaller cave opening on the east side of the pool. It is open Mondays to Saturdays and there are small ''fale'' and changing rooms for visitors. The monastery charges a small visitor's fee. Freshwater pools are fairly common around the coastlines of Savai'i and

islands which were formed from

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...

activity. Cooling lava flows from volcanic eruptions resulted in lava-tunnels that have become conduits for water.

History

The Methodist Mission in Samoa purchased the land for a training institution at Lufilufi in 1868 and named it Piula Theological College. The name ''Piula'' is a

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → and → the digraph , Cyrillic → , Armenian → or L ...

of the

biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

name ''Beulah''.

References

Tourism in Samoa Bodies of water of Samoa Natural pools Atua (district) Bodies of water of Oceania {{Samoa-geo-stub

History

See also

References