Kuria is a the name of a pair of island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

s in the North Gilbert Islands

Gilbert Islands

The Gilbert Islands are a chain of sixteen atolls and coral islands in the Pacific Ocean. They are the main part of Republic of Kiribati and include Tarawa, the site of the country's capital and residence of almost half of the population.-Geography:The atolls and islands of the Gilbert Islands...

 in the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

. They are located northwest of Aranuka

Aranuka

Aranuka is an atoll of Kiribati, located just north of the equator, in the Gilbert Islands...

 (which contains an island that shares the same name as the largest island in Kuria).

The two islands, Buariki and Oneeke

Oneeke

Oneeke is the smaller of the two islands which form Kuria in the North Gilbert Islands. It is separated from Buariki, the larger island, by a narrow channel. A fringing reef extends from the island....

, are separated by a 20 metre wide channel on a shallow water platform (Te breeti ), which is crossed by a bridge of the connecting road. The islands are surrounded by fringing reef

Reef

In nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....

 which is broadest on the eastern side of Kuria.

Thomas Gilbert

Thomas Gilbert (captain)

Thomas Gilbert was an 18th century British mariner.Thomas Gilbert and John Marshall were the captains of two East India Company vessels, the Charlotte and the Scarborough, returning from carrying convicts to Botany Bay in 1788, when they sailed through the Gilbert Islands and described Aranuka,...

 and John Marshall

John Marshall (British captain)

Captain John Marshall was born in Ramsgate, Kent, England on 15 February 1748. Having been bound apprentice at the age of ten he spent his life at sea...

, sailing in the East India Company

East India Company

The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

 vessels Charlotte

Charlotte (ship)

The Charlotte was a First Fleet transport ship of 335 tons, built on the River Thames in 1787. She was a light sailer, and had to be towed down the English Channel for the first few days of the voyage...

 and Scarborough

Scarborough (ship)

'Scarborough' was a transport ship of 430 tons, built at Scarborough in 1782. She formed part of the First Fleet, which commenced European settlement of Australia in 1788....

, were the first Europeans to describe visiting Kuria, in June of 1788.

At some point between 1860 and the late 1880s, the islands were conquered by Tenkoruti, king of Abemama

Abemama

Abemama is an atoll in the central part of the Kiribati Group located 152 kilometres southeast of Tarawa and just north of the Equator.- Geography :...

. They were then ruled by Tenkoruti's nephew, Tembinok'

Tembinok'

Tembinok’, or Tem Binoka, was the ruler of Abemama, Aranuka and Kuria, in the Gilbert Islands, during the late 19th century. Tembinok’'s grandfather, Teñkoruti , was the ruler of a village on Abemama, which was then experiencing devastating feuds...

.