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Story: City history and people

Maungakiekie

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Maungakiekie

Māori never developed cities, instead living mostly in family-based villages. Nonetheless, areas of concentrated settlement did exist, including Tāmaki (Auckland isthmus). At the peak of its prosperity in 1750 the area’s population numbered thousands. A large community developed around Maungakiekie (One Tree Hill), which was an extensive . This aerial image shows how the landscape was terraced to make the .

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Natural Sciences Image Library of New Zealand

Reference: Go18075Rbt.jpg

by G. R. Roberts

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How to cite this page

David Thorns and Ben Schrader, City history and people – The first towns, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/23488/maungakiekie (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by David Thorns and Ben Schrader, published 15 April 2010.