Mānoa is a valley and a residential neighborhood of Honolulu CDP

Honolulu, Hawaii

Honolulu is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii. Honolulu is the southernmost major U.S. city. Although the name "Honolulu" refers to the urban area on the southeastern shore of the island of Oahu, the city and county government are consolidated as the City and...

 of the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

; the community is approximately three miles east and inland from downtown Honolulu

Downtown Honolulu

Downtown Honolulu is the current historic, economic, governmental, and central part of Honolulu—bounded by Nuuanu Stream to the west, Ward Avenue to the east, Vineyard Boulevard to the north, and Honolulu Harbor to the south—situated within the larger Honolulu District...

 and less than a mile from Ala Moana

Ala Moana

Ala Moana is the name of a commercial, retail and residential district of Honolulu, Hawaii nestled between Waikīkī to the east and Kakaako and Honolulu Harbor to the west...

 and Waikīkī

Waikiki

Waikiki is a neighborhood of Honolulu, in the City and County of Honolulu, on the south shore of the island of Oahu, in Hawaii. Waikiki Beach is the shoreline fronting Waikīkī....

 at 21°18.87916′N 157°48.4846′W.

Like many of Hawaii's neighborhoods, Mānoa consists of an entire valley, running from Mānoa Falls at the mauka (inland-most) end to King Street. The valley receives almost daily rain, even during the dry season, and is thus richly vegetated – though the valley walls are often dry. Seeing rainbows in the valley is a common occurrence, and is the source of the University of Hawaii at Mānoa

University of Hawaii at Manoa

The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a public, co-educational university and is the flagship campus of the greater University of Hawaii system...

 sports team names, the Rainbow Warriors

Hawaii Rainbow Warriors

The University of Hawaii Warriors, University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, or University of Hawaii Rainbows are the team names of the men's sports programs at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa....

 (for most men's teams) and Rainbow Wahine (for the women).

The neighborhood is composed of private houses built before the 1960s and low-rise condominiums. Mānoa is home to the University of Hawaii at Mānoa

University of Hawaii at Manoa

The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a public, co-educational university and is the flagship campus of the greater University of Hawaii system...

, the flagship campus of the University of Hawaii

University of Hawaii

The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...

 System. The University has several faculty and student residence areas in Mānoa.

Other educational institutions located in Mānoa include Mānoa Elementary School, Noelani Elementary School

Noelani Elementary School

Noelani Elementary School is a public elementary school located in Honolulu, Hawaii.-Basic information:Noelani is nestled in Mānoa Valley, a very old and established community. The school's address is 2655 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822. The school has grown from a one building school in...

, Punahou School

Punahou School

Punahou School, once known as Oahu College, is a private, co-educational, college preparatory school located in Honolulu CDP, City and County of Honolulu in the U.S. State of Hawaii...

, Mid-Pacific Institute

Mid-Pacific Institute

Mid-Pacific Institute is a private, co-educational college preparatory school for grades Pre-K and K-12, offering programs of study in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and the Mid-Pacific School of the Arts . Mid-Pacific Institute is located on in Mānoa Valley, near the...

, Saint Francis School, and a handful of small, private pre-schools.

The central shopping area of Mānoa is the Mānoa Marketplace which features a farmer's market several days of the week. More recent development has seen housing on steeper parts of the Diamond Head

Diamond Head, Hawaii

Diamond Head is the name of a volcanic tuff cone on the Hawaiian island of Oahu and known to Hawaiians as Lēahi, most likely from lae 'browridge, promontory' plus ahi 'tuna' because the shape of the ridgeline resembles the shape of a tuna's dorsal fin...

 side valley wall.

Mānoa stream begins at the base of Mānoa Falls

Manoa Falls

Manoa Falls is a waterfall on the island of O'ahu in Hawai'i, featuring a vertical drop of about . It is accessible from the nearest road by a hike of approximately . The hike passes through many ecosystems and feels like an arboretum. At the bottom of the falls there is a tiny pool good for...

 and runs through the valley before joining Palolo stream to form the Manoa-Palolo drainage canal, which flows into the Ala Wai Canal

Ala Wai Canal

The Ala Wai Canal is an artificial waterway in Honolulu, Hawaii which serves as the northern boundary of the tourist district of Waikīkī. It was created in 1928 for the purpose of draining the rice paddies and swamps which would eventually become the tourist resort area of Waikiki, and today also...

. Floods caused by high rainfall have plagued the residents living along Mānoa stream. Most recent was on October 30, 2004 when Mānoa stream overflowed causing millions of dollars in damages to residential homes and University of Hawaii at Mānoa

University of Hawaii at Manoa

The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a public, co-educational university and is the flagship campus of the greater University of Hawaii system...

 buildings.

Mānoa is the site of the first sugarcane

Sugarcane

Sugarcane refers to any of six to 37 species of tall perennial grasses of the genus Saccharum . Native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia, they have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar, and measure two to six metres tall...

 and coffee

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

 plantations in the Hawaiian Islands

Hawaiian Islands

The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...

. John Wilkinson tended the first crops in 1825, brought on the ship .
Hawaii is the only state that produces coffee commercially in the United States. For more history see coffee production in Hawaii

Coffee production in Hawaii

The only state in the United States of America able to grow coffee plants commercially is Hawaii. However, it is not the only coffee grown on U.S. soil; for example, Puerto Rico has had a coffee industry for some time, although it is not a state but a U.S. territory. Ramiro L...

.

Mānoa is a term that means thick, solid, vast, depth or thickness in the Hawaiian language

Hawaiian language

The Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...

. There is another valley named Mānoa on the north shore of Kauai

Kauai

Kauai or Kauai, known as Tauai in the ancient Kaua'i dialect, is geologically the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands. With an area of , it is the fourth largest of the main islands in the Hawaiian archipelago, and the 21st largest island in the United States. Known also as the "Garden Isle",...

Points of interest

• University of Hawaii at Mānoa
  University of Hawaii at Manoa
  The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a public, co-educational university and is the flagship campus of the greater University of Hawaii system...
  
  
• Lyon Arboretum
  Lyon Arboretum
  The Harold L. Lyon Arboretum is a arboretum and botanical garden managed by the University of Hawaii at Mānoa located at the upper end of Mānoa Valley in Hawaii....
  
  
• Mānoa Falls
  Manoa Falls
  Manoa Falls is a waterfall on the island of O'ahu in Hawai'i, featuring a vertical drop of about . It is accessible from the nearest road by a hike of approximately . The hike passes through many ecosystems and feels like an arboretum. At the bottom of the falls there is a tiny pool good for...