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What are Easter Island Facts? Easter Island, Chilean dependency in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is the easternmost outpost of the Polynesian island world. It is famous for its giant stone statues. The island stands in isolation 1,200 miles (1,900 km) east of Pitcairn Island and 2,200 miles (3,540 km) west of Chile. Forming a triangle 14 miles (23 km) long by 7 miles (11 km) wide, it has an area of 63 square miles (163 square km); its highest point, Mount Terevaka, is 1,969 feet (600 metres) above sea level.
To its original inhabitants the island is known as Rapa Nui (“Great Rapa”) or Te Pito te Henua (“Navel of the World”). The first European visitors, the Dutch, named it Paaseiland (“Easter Island”) in memory of their own day of arrival. Its mixed population is predominantly of Polynesian descent; almost all live in the village of Hanga Roa on the sheltered west coast. Pop. (2002) 3,304; (2017) 7,750.
What are Easter Island Facts?
Easter Island is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is most famous for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, called moai, which were created by the early Rapa Nui people. In 1995, UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site, with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park.
- The people on Easter Island converse in Austronesian languages.
- Easter Island is known for its colossal stone statues worldwide.
- A world heritage site, much of island is protected within the premises of Rapa Nui National Park.
- As per history, the oldest known names of Easter Island are Te Pito o Te Henua, meaning ‘The Center of the World‘ and Mata-Ki-Te-Rani, meaning ‘Eyes Looking at Heaven‘.
- Jacob Roggeveen, who gave the island its present name, was the first ever European to set foot on the island. Since he reached on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1722, he named the island Easter Island.
- In the bygone era, about 288 enormous stone statues called moai stood upon the stone platforms called ahu. There were about 250 such ahu platforms in the island, thereby forming an unbroken line.
- The average height and weight of stone statue on the ahu is about 14 feet, 6 inches tall and 14 tons.
- Some of the statues as large as 33 feet and weighed more than 80 tons.
- Almost all the moai statues found in the island are made from the hard stone of the Rano Raraku volcano.
- Though mostly famous for the statues, Easter Island also possesses a script, the Rongor script, the only written language in Oceania.
- Easter Island boasts of art and culture, including petroglyphs (rock carvings), traditional wood carvings, tapa (barkcloth) crafts, tattooing, string figures, dance and music.
- An Outrigger Club was founded in the Easter Island on 1989, by Rodriego Paoa Atamu.
- Easter Island is home to two types of small lizards and only a few species of insects. There are no mammals and no fishes on the island.
What is special in Easter Island?
The island is most famous for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, called moai, which were created by the early Rapa Nui people. In 1995, UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site, with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park.
What is Easter Island famously known for?
One of the most remote inhabited locations on Earth, Easter Island is famous for the thousand or so enigmatic, towering statues that dot its landscape, called moai. Earlier this month, a fire caused “irreparable damage” to hundreds of moai, according to the local government of the island, known as Rapa Nui to locals.
Why is Easter Island a mystery?
Isolation: Easter Island is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world, located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. Its isolation raises questions about how and why people first settled there, as well as the challenges they faced in terms of resources and contact with the outside world.
