Easter Island

Easter Island is located in the Pacific Ocean, 3,703 km from Chile. Among the locals is known as Rapa Nui. All over the world, Easter Island is famous for its stone sculptures - moai, which there are more than one hundred.

The island was discovered on April 5, 1722 by a traveler from Holland, Jacob Roggeven. It was decided to name Easter Island, in honor of a religious holiday. Soon the island was forgotten for more than 50 years. Later there were attempts to take control of the island, but because of the low importance of the island, they tried not particularly willingly. During this time, James Cook and even Russian ships were here. 1862 was sad in the history of the inhabitants of the island. Slave traders from Peru arrived here and enslaved more than 1,000 people to extract guano. Because of the terrible working conditions, no more than a hundred survived. Soon, the French authorities and the governor of Tahiti intervened, forcing all the inhabitants of the island to be returned. But due to illnesses, 15 inhabitants reached the island, who infected the entire island with smallpox and tuberculosis. The former king died in slavery, and the outbreak of civil war and disease reduced the size of Easter Island to half a thousand.

Easter Island was formed under the influence of volcanoes, the remains of which can be found here. The largest of them, Rano-Kao, has a height of only 324 meters, its crater has a diameter of one and a half kilometers, and a depth of 800 meters. Terevak volcano has 2 craters and they are filled with fresh water. Thanks to fertile land, the lack of a powerful wind and the "greenhouse effect" in the craters of the volcano, rich vegetation occurs than the rest of the island cannot boast.

The main attraction of Easter Island is the stone sculptures of Moai. Moai in height reaching 20 meters and some even have red stone caps. They were made in a quarry in the middle of the island, there are still untransported statues. According to the local legend, the Moai themselves went to the places of their parking lots, but there is a small snag - the Moai has no legs. Traveler from Norway Tour Heyerdahl in his book "Aku-Aku" described one of the ways he received from a local resident. The statues on Easter Island were moved on wooden sledding, and they lifted them up, rocking logs, lifting the statue like that, and then fixing the rise, laying stones, and so on until the statue took up the vertical position. If the rulers of the island had more people, they would surely have built the pyramids of Giza from Moai.

At the foot of the Rano-Raraku volcano, you can find more than 300 statues of moai. This is the most visited place among travelers. Near the bay is the ceremonial platform of the ahu Tongariki with 15 statues set on it. In Anaken Bay, you can find one of the island’s excellent beaches with coral sand, and in the grove nearby you can have picnics. According to legend, the boat of the first king Rapa-Nui - Hotu-Matu with the first inhabitants marched into this bay.

The flora and fauna of Easter Island is very scarce. There are approximately 30 species of plants, almost all fresh to the island. Before the Europeans arrived here in these places, the current of the sea feathered and animals met: seal, turtle, crab.

The main profit of the island is tourism. Easter Island can only be reached by plane from Santiago or by ship, but the latter rarely come here.