What is Easter Island? Facts, Moai monoliths, World Heritage Site

Easter Island has been synonymous with the huge, spectacular stone monoliths, known as Moais, which once dotted its landscape. Located over 2,000 miles from the nearest population center, (Tahiti and Chile), it is one of the most isolated places on Earth.

What is Easter Island?

In the 1860s, Tahitian sailors gave the island the name Rapa Nui, meaning ‘Great Rapa‘ due to its resemblance to another island in Polynesia. Only 64 square miles in size, this tiny island can be described an open air museum for the huge stone Moais scattered everywhere. These mysterious carved figures, massive in size, some weighing 50 tons, stand more than ten meters high, gazing out across rolling hills, mountains and extinct volcanoes towards crystal clear waters.

Dutch sea captain Jacob Roggeveen, who came upon the island on Easter Day in 1722, named it Easter Island. Today, the land, people and language are all referred to locally as Rapa Nui. Hanga Roa is the tiny capital where most of the 2,000 inhabitants live. About 69% of the islanders are descendants of the original Polynesian ancestors. The Easter Island was annexed by Chile in 1888. For quite sometime mystery theories were abound regarding the early ancestors of the Easter Island and the gigantic stone sculptures. Some called it the remnants of a lost civilization while others ascribed the Moai statues to extraterrestrial influence. But subsequent scientific investigation has proved that the original inhabitants of Easter Island were of Polynesian descent.

ईस्टर द्वीप, दक्षिणपूर्व प्रशांत महासागर में पोलिनेशियाई त्रिकोण के सबसे दक्षिणपूर्व बिंदु पर स्थित एक पोलिनेशियाई द्वीप है। चिली के इस विशेष क्षेत्र का 1888 में चिली में विलय किया गया। ईस्टर द्वीप अपनी 887 मोवाई बड़ी मूर्तियां के लिए प्रसिद्ध है, जिन्हें प्राचीन रापानुई लोगों ने बनाया था। यह एक विश्व धरोहर स्थल है और द्वीप का अधिकतर भाग रापा नुई राष्ट्रीय उद्यान के अंतर्गत आता है। आधुनिक समय में द्वीप को संसाधनों के आवश्यकता से अधिक दोहन से होने वाली सांस्कृतिक और पर्यावरणीय हानि के एक जीवंत उदाहरण के तौर पर देखा जाता है, हालाँकि अब इस सिद्धांत को नृवंशविज्ञानियों और पुरातत्वविदों से कड़ी चुनौती मिल रही है, उनके मतानुसार यूरोपीय उपनिवेशकों द्वारा लाई गयी बीमारियां और दासव्यापार द्वारा सन 1800 के शतक दौरान मूलनिवासियों की संख्या में आई भयंकर कमी का, पर्यावरणीय गिरावट की तुलना में बहुत अधिक सामाजिक प्रभाव पड़ा और यूरोपीय उपनिवेशकों द्वारा अपने साथ लाये गये जानवरों, पहले चूहे और फिर भेड़ों की वजह से द्वीप की मूल वनस्पति को बहुत अधिक नुकसान हुआ और द्वीप 1930-1960 के बीच लगभग वनविहीन हो चला था। अंतर्निहित द्वीप का भूविज्ञान, विलुप्त ज्वालामुखियों में से एक है।

What is special about 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 the mystery of Easter Island?

Easter Island must surely be one of the greatest mysteries of human civilisation. Many theories have been formed over the years about where the original inhabitants came from, why they built hundreds of monumental statues called Moai, how they transported them and why the people who made them eventually died out.

Does anyone live on Easter Island?

Map of Easter Island, or Rapa Nui. Despite its extreme seclusion, most people know of Easter Island for one reason: the moai sculptures. And they are enough to attract nearly 100,000 travelers every year to this island of just 5,700 inhabitants.