Faaite, or Faaiti, is an atoll of the Tuamotus in French Polynesia. It is located 60 km to the north of Anaa Atoll. The total surface of the atoll is 230 km². Its dry land area is 9 km². Its length is 28 km and its width 10.5 km.
Faaite's inner lagoon has a navigable channel to the ocean. The main village is Hitianau, with a total population of 246.
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The first recorded European to arrive to Faaite Atoll was John Turnbull in 1802. Turnbull was the first retailer of the Pacific who used the route of Tahiti to Hawaii.
Russian oceanic explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen visited Faaite in 1820 on the ships Vostok and Mirni. He named this atoll "Miloradovich".
This atoll reached a measure of fame after the "Bûchers de Faaite" affair. On September 2 1987 six persons were thrown into the fire (some of them by their own children) because the islanders were convinced that they were possessed by the devil.
There is a territorial (domestic) airfield in Faaite which was inaugurated in 1992.
Administratively Faaite belongs to the commune of Anaa, which includes the inhabited atoll of Faaite and the uninhabited atolls of Tahanea and Motutunga.
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