Easter Island: Mysterious Rapa Nui. What secrets does Easter Island hide? Who Discovered Easter Island

Easter Island

Spanish Isla de Pascua, rap. Rapa Nui



Characteristics

Square	163.6 km²

highest point	539 m

Population	5806 people (2012)

Population density	35.49 people/km²

Location

27°07′00″ S sh. 109°21′00″ W d.


water area

A country

Region	Valparaiso

Provinces	Isla de Pascua

Easter Island


Media files at Wikimedia Commons

Easter Island, or Rapanui(Spanish) Isla de Pascua, rap. Rapa Nui, Netherl. Paas eiland) - an island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, a territory (together with the uninhabited island of Sala y Gomez, it forms the province and commune of Isla de Pascua as part of the Valparaiso region). The local name for the island is Rapanui, or Rapa Nui(rap. Rapa nui). Area - 163.6 km².

Along with the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, it is the most remote inhabited island in the world. The distance to the continental coast of Chile is 3514 km, to the island, the nearest inhabited place, is 2075 km. The island was discovered by the Dutch traveler Jacob Roggeveen on Easter Sunday 1722.

The capital of the island and its only city is Anga Roa. In total, 5806 people live on the island (2012).

Rapanui is largely known for its moai, or stone statues made of compressed volcanic ash, which, according to local beliefs, contain the supernatural power of the ancestors of the first king of Easter Island - Hotu-Matu'a. Annexed in 1888. In 1995 Rapanui National Park (Easter Island) became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Etymology

Flag of Easter Island

Coat of arms of Easter Island

Easter Island has several names:

Hititeairaghi(rap. Hititeairagi), or Hit-ai-ranks(rap. Hiti-ai-rangi);
Tekaouhangoaru(rap. Tekaouhangoaru);
Mata-ki-te-ragi(rap. Mata-ki-te-Ragi, translated from Rapanui - “eyes looking at the sky”);
Te-Pito-o-te-henua(rap. Te-Pito-o-te-henua - "navel of the earth");
Rapanui or Rapa Nui(rap. Rapa Nui - "Great Rapa"), a name mainly used by whalers;
san carlos island(Spanish) Isla de San Carlos), so named by González Don Felipe in honor of the king;
Teapi(rap. Teapi) - this is what James Cook called the island;
Waihu(rap. Vaihu), or waihou(rap. Vaihou), there is a variant Vaygu, - this name was also used by James Cook, and later by Forster and La Perouse (a bay in the northeast of the island is named after him);
Easter Island(Dutch. Paasch-Eyland; Spanish. Isla de Pascua), so named by the Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen because he discovered it on Easter Day 1722.

Very often, Easter Island is called Rapanui (in translation - "Big Rapa"). The island got its name thanks to the Tahitian navigators who used it to distinguish between Easter Island and the island of Rapa Iti (translated as “Little Rapa”), lying 650 km south of Tahiti, and having a topological similarity with it. The very name "Rapanui" has caused a lot of controversy among linguists about the correct spelling of this word. Among English-speaking specialists, the word " Rapa Nui" (separately) is used to name the island, and the word " Rapanui» (fused) - when it comes to the people or local culture.

Geography

Easter Island is a unique area in the Southeast Pacific Ocean, one of the most inland inhabited islands in the world. It is located 3514 km from the coast of the nearest mainland in the east () and is 2075 km away from the nearest inhabited islands in the west (island). Island coordinates: 27°07′ S sh. 109°21′ W d.. The area of the island is 163.6 km². The nearest land is the uninhabited Sala y Gómez archipelago, apart from a few rocks near the island.

The island has the shape of a right triangle, the hypotenuse of which is the southeast coast. The sides of this "triangle" have lengths of 16, 18 and 24 km. Extinct volcanoes rise in the corners of the island: Rano Kau (rap. Rano Kau) (324 m) near the settlement of Mataveri; Pua Katiki (rap. Puakatike) (377 m) and Terevaka (rap. Terevaka, 539 m - the highest point of the island).

The highest crater of the Terevaka volcano is called Rano Aroi (rap. Rano Aroi, about 200 m). Actually "Rano-Aroi" is the name of the lake that fills the extinct crater.

Another Terevaka crater - Rano Raraku (rap. Rano Raraku) (160 m) is also a lake with a large supply of fresh water, surrounded by reed beds. The diameter of this crater is about 650 m.

The diameter of the Rano-Kau crater is about 1500 m. The volcano has a symmetrical shape and is surrounded by hilly terrain. The southern slope breaks off into the ocean.

Vegetation is more abundant on the inner slopes of volcanoes. This is due to more fertile soil, the absence of strong winds and the "greenhouse effect".

Easter Island is of volcanic origin. The soil was formed as a result of erosion of the slopes of volcanoes. The most fertile soil is located in the north of the island, where locals grow sweet potatoes and yams. The most common rocks on the island are basalt, obsidian, rhyolite, and trachyte. Sheer cliffs in La Perouse Bay (locally called Hanga Hoonu) are made up of red lava.

The island is surrounded by small islands: at the southeastern tip - Motu Nui (rap. Motu Nui, the largest island on which military leaders of the inhabitants of Rapanui were elected in the distant past), Motu-Iti (rap. Motu Iti), Motu-Kao-Kao (rap. Motu Kao Kao, this island has a magnetic anomaly), at the western tip - Motu Tautira (rap. Motu tautira), and at the eastern tip - Motu Marotiri (rap. Motu marotiri).

Panorama of Easter Island from the border of the Rano Kau crater

Island climate

Climate of Easter Island

The climate of Easter Island is warm and tropical. The average annual temperature is 21.8 °C, the coldest month is August (19.2 °C), the warmest is January (24.6 °C). The island lies near the southern border of the zone of southeasterly winds blowing in summer. In winter, the northwest prevails, but there are also southwest and southeast winds. Despite the proximity to the tropics, the climate on the island is relatively temperate. Heat is rare. This is due to the proximity of the cold Humboldt current and the absence of any land between the island and. Winds from the Antarctic in July-August often reduce the daytime air temperature to 20° Celsius.

The main source of fresh water on the island is lakes formed in the craters of local volcanoes. There are no rivers on Rapanui, and rainwater easily seeps through the soil, forming groundwater flowing towards the ocean. Since there is not much water on the island, local residents in the past built wells and small reservoirs everywhere.

Table of average monthly temperatures, precipitation and humidity

Flora

Easter Island in Spring

The flora of the island is very poor: experts count no more than 30 species of plants growing on Rapanui. Most of them were brought from other islands, America,. Many endemic plants, formerly widespread in Rapanui, have been extirpated. Between the 9th and 17th centuries, there was an active felling of trees (according to another version, the trees died due to a long-term drought, or these factors acted simultaneously), which led to the disappearance of forests on the island (probably, before that, forests from endemic palm trees grew on it Paschalococos disperta). Another reason could be the eating of tree seeds by rats. Due to unsustainable human activities and other factors, the resulting accelerated soil erosion has caused great damage to agriculture, resulting in a significant reduction in the population of Rapanui.

One of the extinct plants Sophora toromiro, whose local name is toromiro(rap. toromiro). This small tree (no more than 2 m high) of the Bean family on the island in the past played an important role in the culture of the Rapanui people: “speaking tablets” with local pictograms were made from it.

The trunk of a toromiro, with a diameter of a human thigh and thinner, was often used in the construction of houses; darts were also made from it. In the 19th-20th centuries, this tree was exterminated (one of the reasons was that the young growth was destroyed by sheep brought to the island). The plant managed to be preserved, grown from collected seeds, only in a few botanical gardens in Europe and Chile, attempts at re-acclimatization on the island have not yet been successful.

Another plant on the island is a variety of the mulberry tree, whose local name is mahute(rap. mahute). In the past, this plant also played a significant role in the life of the islanders: white clothes, called tapa, were made from the bast of the mulberry tree. After the appearance of the first Europeans on the island - whalers and missionaries - the importance of mahute in the life of the Rapanui people decreased.

plant roots ti(rap. ti), or Dracaena terminalis used to make sugar. Also, this plant was used to make a powder of dark blue and green, which was then applied to the body as tattoos.

Makoi(rap. makoi) ( Thespesia populnea) was used for carving.

One of the surviving plants of the island, which grows on the slopes of the Rano Kao and Rano Raraku craters, is sedge Scirpus californicus used in the construction of houses.

In recent decades, a small growth of eucalyptus has begun to appear on the island. In the XVIII-XIX centuries, grapes, banana, melon, sugar cane were brought to the island.

Fauna

Before the arrival of Europeans on the island, the fauna of Easter Island was mainly represented by marine animals: seals, turtles, crabs. Chickens were raised on the island. The species of local fauna that inhabited Rapanui earlier became extinct - for example, a subspecies of the rat Rattus exulans, which in the past the locals used for food. Instead, rats of the species Rattus norvegicus And Rattus rattus, which became carriers of various diseases previously unknown to the Rapanui.

Now 25 species of sea birds nest on the island and 6 species of land birds live.

Population

Main article: Easter Island population

It is estimated that during the cultural heyday of Easter Island in the 16th and 17th centuries, the population of Rapanui was between 10,000 and 15,000 people. Due to the ecological catastrophe that broke out as a result of the anthropogenic factor, as well as clashes between the inhabitants, the population by the time the first Europeans arrived was reduced to 2-3 thousand people, that's how much the island could feed. By 1877, as a result of the removal of local residents for hard labor, epidemics and extensive sheep breeding, the population was further reduced and amounted to 111 people. By 1888, the time of the annexation of the island, 178 people lived on Rapanui. According to the last census in 2012, 5806 people already lived on the island. The population density on the island has reached 36 people / km² (in comparison, in - 230, in - 8.4). The official languages on the island are Spanish and Rapa Nui. Most of the modern inhabitants of the island (52%) are Hispanic immigrants from continental Chile, as well as their descendants of the 2nd and 3rd generations; 48% of the inhabitants are of full or partial Rapanui origin. The proportion of pure autochthons tends to decrease due to their gradual miscegenation and Hispanization.

Administrative management

Main article: Isla de Pascua (province)

Easter Island, along with the surrounding islets and the uninhabited island of Sala y Gomez, forms the province of Isla de Pascua and the commune of the same name in the Chilean region of Valparaiso. The province is headed by a governor accredited to the Chilean government and appointed by the president. Since 1984, only a local resident can become the governor of the island (the first was Sergio Rapu Haoa, a former archaeologist and museum curator). Since 1966, the settlement of Anga Roa has elected a 6-member local council every four years, headed by a mayor.

There are about two dozen police officers on the island, responsible mainly for security at the local airport.

The armed forces of Chile (mainly the Navy) are also present. The current currency on the island is the Chilean peso (US dollars are also in circulation on the island). Easter Island is a duty-free zone, so tax revenues to the island's budget are relatively small. To a large extent, it consists of subsidies from the government.

Infrastructure

LAN Airlines plane at the airport of the island

In 1966, the only airport on the island of Mataveri became the base of the American air force, and in 1986 it was reconstructed by NASA for possible emergency landings of American Shuttles, so it is one of the most remote airports in the world, capable of receiving large-capacity aircraft. Due to the sharp influx of tourists, active construction is underway on the island, and tourism itself has become the main source of income for local residents (however, the total number of tourists is not so large).

The island has a centralized water supply system, although until recently, local residents used fresh water from lakes of extinct volcanoes. Electricity on the island is generated by diesel generators available in every home. Paved roads are nearby administrative center islands - settlements of Anga Roa, as well as Mataveri, where the airport is located. At the same time, the road from Anga Roa to Anakena Bay in the north and to the Poike Peninsula in the south is tarred. At the Anga Roa school, after graduation, you can get a high school diploma, which gives you the right to enter a higher educational institution, but there are no higher educational institutions on the island, so local residents have to go to mainland Chile to continue their education. Easter Island Primary School, under the auspices of UNESCO, provides classes in two languages - Rapanui and Spanish. Rapanui also has an anthropological museum named after Father Sebastian Englert, as well as a large library with a collection of books on the history, culture and study of Easter Island.

Health care on the island is much better than in other remote parts of Chile. There is one small hospital, as well as an outpatient clinic.

Other infrastructure facilities (church, post office, bank, pharmacy, small shops, one supermarket, cafes and restaurants) appeared mainly in the 1960s. The island has a satellite phone, internet and even a small disco for the locals. To call Easter Island, you need to dial the code of Chile - +56, the code of Easter Island - +32 and from August 5, 2006 the number 2. After that, a local number consisting of 6 digits is dialed (and the first three will be 100 or 551 - this the only valid prefixes on the island).

Tourism

Anakena - the most famous beach of the island

Ahu Tongariki

Tourism is the main source of income for the population. The only regular flight to Easter Island is operated by the Chilean airline " L.A. Airlines”, whose planes depart from Tahiti, making an intermediate landing on Easter Island. Domestic flights are carried out according to the scheme "Santiago - Easter Island - Santiago". Depending on which ticket is ordered, international or domestic, the departure takes place from two different terminals of the Santiago airport. The flight schedule depends on the time of the year. In December-March flights are carried out several times a week. The rest of the year - from one to two times a week. The flight lasts about 5 hours. Starting from November 2010, you can also get to Easter Island by direct flight from the capital. All planes land at the only airport on Easter Island - Mataveri. Rapanui has only one marina for small ships. There is no regular shipping communication with other parts of the planet.

There are several hotels on the island, including four- and three-star levels. Rapanui prices are very high; This is due to the fact that most of the products are imported. The sights of the island can be reached by taxi, rented cars, bicycles, horses or on foot.

Since 1975, the Tapati festival (rap. Tapati Rapa Nui) has been held on the island every year in late January - early February, accompanied by dances, chants and various traditional competitions of the Rapanui people.

Attractions

Profile of the statue against the backdrop of the crater of the Rano Roratka volcano

Moai - stone statues on the coast of Easter Island in the form of a human head with a body truncated approximately to the level of the belt. Their height reaches 20 meters. Contrary to popular belief, they do not look towards the ocean, but inland. Some moai have red stone caps. Moai were made in quarries in the center of the island.

How they were delivered to the coast is unknown. According to legend, they "walked" on their own. Recently, enthusiastic volunteers have found several ways to transport stone blocks, but which one the ancient inhabitants used (or some of their own) has not yet been determined. The Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl in his book "Aku-Aku" gives a description of one of these methods, which was tested in action by local residents. According to the book, information about this method was obtained from one of the few remaining direct descendants of the Moai builders. So, one of the Moai, overturned from the pedestal, was hoisted back by using logs slipped under the statue as levers, by swinging which it was possible to achieve small movements of the statue along the vertical axis. Movements were recorded by lining the upper part of the statue with stones of various sizes and alternating them. Actually, the transportation of the statues could be carried out by means of a wooden sledge. The local resident presents this method as the most probable, but he himself believes that the statues still reached their places on their own.

Many unfinished idols are in the quarries. A detailed study of the island gives the impression of a sudden cessation of work on the statues.

Rano Raraku- one of the most interesting places for tourists. At the foot of this volcano there are about 300 moai, of various heights and at different stages of readiness. Not far from the bay is ahu Tongariki - the largest ritual site with 15 statues of various sizes installed on it.
On the shore of the bay Anakena located one of the most beautiful beaches islands with crystal white coral sand. Swimming is allowed in the bay. Picnics are organized for tourists in palm groves. Also not far from the Anakena bay are ahu Ature-Hooks and ahu Naunau. According to ancient Rapanui legend, it was in this bay that Hotu-Matu'a, the first king of Rapanui, landed with the first settlers of the island.
Te-Pito-te-henua(rap. "Navel of the Earth") - a ceremonial platform on an island of round stones. The origin of this place is quite controversial. Anthropologist Christian Walter claims that Te Pito-te-henua was established in the 1960s to attract gullible tourists to the island.
On the volcano early kao there is an observation deck. Nearby is the Orongo ceremonial site.
puna pau- a small volcano near Rano Khao. In the distant past, a red stone was mined here, from which “headdresses” were made for local moai.

Story

Main article: History of Easter Island

Settlement and early history of the island

According to a comparison of glottochronological and radiocarbon estimates, the island was inhabited in 300-400 years (according to other sources - about 900) AD. e. settlers from the East - presumably from the island of Mangareva. The extreme estimate of the time of the settlement of the island is 1200 - the moment of the disappearance of forests, determined by the radiocarbon method. According to legend, the first settlers arrived on the island on two huge pirogues with large families.

There is a hypothesis about the stay in the Pacific Islands in the 1480s (possibly Easter Island) of the fleet under the command of the tenth Sapa Inca Tupac Inca Yupanqui. According to the Spaniard Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, during the reign of Tupac Inca Yupanqui, the Incas had a fleet of balsa rafts, on which they (perhaps even Tupac Inca Yupanqui personally) reached some islands in the Pacific Ocean. There are indirect confirmations of the stay of the Incas on the island: legends of local residents about a powerful leader named Tupa who arrived from the east; the ruins of Ahu Vinapu, built in the classical style of Inca architecture from irregularly shaped basalt blocks carefully fitted to each other; as well as the fact that the totora, which grows in the volcanic lakes of Rano Raraku and Rano Kau, appeared there no earlier than the 14th century, and outside of Easter Island it grows only in Lake Titicaca. This hypothesis has its confirmation in the DNA of the inhabitants of South America found in the blood of modern Rapanui.

Before the advent of Europeans, two different peoples lived on the island - the “long-eared”, who dominated and had a peculiar culture and script, built moai, and the “short-eared”, who occupied a subordinate position. According to recent linguistic studies, the correct translation of the names of the tribes "hanau momoko" - "thin caste" and "hanau eepe" - "burly caste". In the future, it turned out to be extremely difficult to restore information about the former culture of Easter Island, only fragmentary information remained.

Mitochondrial haplogroup B (three subclades B4a1a1m1 and two subclades B4a1a1) was found by geneticists in five fossil samples from Rapanui. The oldest examples date back to the period from 1445 to 1624.

Occupations of the ancient Rapanui

Main article: Rapanui

At present, Easter is a treeless island with infertile volcanic soil. However, by the time of settlement by Polynesians in the 9th-10th centuries, according to palynological studies of cores from the soil, the island was covered with dense forest cover.

In the past, as now, the slopes of the volcanoes were used to grow sweet potatoes and yams.

According to Rapanui legends, how plants ( Triumfeta semitriloba), marikuru ( Sapindus saponaria), makoi ( Thespesia populnea) and sandalwood were brought by the king of Hotu-Matu'a, who sailed to the island from the mysterious homeland of Mara'e Renga (rap. Mara "e Renga). This could really happen, since the Polynesians, populating new lands, brought plant seeds with them which were of great practical importance.The ancient Rapanui people were very well versed in agriculture, plants, and the peculiarities of their cultivation.Therefore, the island could well feed several thousand people.

The settlers cut down the forest both for economic needs (shipbuilding, construction of dwellings, transportation of moai, etc.), and to free up space for crops. As a result of intensive felling over the centuries, the forest was completely exhausted by about 1600. The result was wind erosion of the soil that destroyed the fertile layer, a sharp reduction in fish catch due to the lack of forest for building boats, a drop in food production, mass starvation, cannibalism and population decline several times in a few decades.

One of the problems of the island has always been the lack of fresh water. There are no full-flowing rivers on Rapanui, and water after rains easily seeps through the soil and flows towards the ocean. The Rapanui built small wells, mixed fresh water with salt water, and sometimes drank just salt water.

In the past, Polynesians always took three animals with them when they went in search of new islands: a pig, a dog, and a chicken. Only chicken was brought to Easter Island - later a symbol of well-being among the ancient Rapanui people.

The rat is not a pet, however, it was introduced by the first settlers of Easter Island, who considered it a delicacy. After the black rats introduced by Hotu-Matu'a and his followers, gray rats, introduced by Europeans, appeared on the island.

Motu Nui Island as seen from Orongo

The waters surrounding Easter Island are teeming with fish, especially around the cliffs of Motu Nui, where seabirds nest in large numbers. Fish was a favorite food of the ancient Rapanui people, and in the winter months it was even set to catch it. Easter Island used a huge amount of fish hooks in the past. Some of them were made from human bones, they were called mangai-iwi(rap. mangai ivi), others are made of stone, they were called mangai-kahi(rap. mangai kahi) and was mainly used for tuna fishing. Hooks made of polished stone were only among privileged residents, who were called tangata-manu(rap. tangata manu). After the death of the owner, they were placed in his grave. The very existence of fish hooks speaks of the development of the ancient Rapanui civilization, since the stone polishing technique is quite complex, as is the achievement of such smooth forms. Often fish hooks were made from the bone of an enemy. According to the beliefs of the Rapanui, the mana (rap. mana) of the deceased person, that is, his strength, was transferred to the fisherman.

An ancient fishhook made from a human femur, or mangai-ivi (rap. mangai ivi) from Easter Island. Consists of two parts connected by a rope

The Rapanui hunted turtles, which are often mentioned in local legends. They were so highly valued by the Rapanui that even blunts were built on the shore (rap. tupa), which served as watchtowers.

The ancient Rapanui people did not have so many pirogues (the Rapanui name is waka, rap. vaka), like other Polynesians who plied the waters of the Pacific Ocean. In addition, a clear shortage of tall and large trees affected the technique of their production. The Rapa Nui people had two types of pirogues: without a balancer, which were used when sailing near the coast, and pirogues with a balancer, which were used when sailing over long distances. By the time the island was discovered by Europeans, due to the lack of large trees, the Rapanui people no longer had swimming facilities capable of covering considerable distances, they could only catch fish and marine animals near the coast.

Public Relations of the Ancient Rapanui

Ahu Te Pito Kura - the navel of the Earth in the folklore of the inhabitants of Easter Island

Main article: Rapanui

Very little is known about the structure of the ancient Rapanui society that existed before the 19th century. In connection with the export local population in , where it was used as slaves, epidemics due to diseases brought to the island by Europeans, and the adoption of Christianity, the Rapanui society forgot about the hierarchical relationships that existed before, the ties of the family and the tribe.

At the beginning of the 19th century, there were ten tribes on Rapanui, or mata(rap. mata), whose members considered themselves descendants of eponymous ancestors, who, in turn, were descendants of the first king of the island of Hotu-Matu'a. According to the Rapanui legend, after the death of Hotu-Matu'a, the island was divided between his sons, who gave names to all the Rapanui tribes. Gradually, new ones emerged from the existing tribes. So, the Rapanui legend tells about the appearance of tribes raa And chamea who lived in the territory of the tribe the world.

The complexity of the political geography of the island also lies in the fact that by the time of the discovery of Rapanui, the tribes did not live exclusively on their territory. This was explained, first of all, by intertribal marriages, as a result of which children could claim the lands of their father from another tribe or inherit their mother's possessions.

The territory of the tribe was often divided among the descendants of the members. mata-iti(rap. mata iti), or small clans that formed within the tribe. The lands that belonged to them were strips of land stretching from the coast to the center of the island. Ahu on the shore, which was a cemetery and a sanctuary, indicated that the territory belonged to a tribe.

In ancient times, the tribesmen lived in huge huts. It was a kind of tribal community, which was called iwi(rap. ivi). The role of such an extended family is unknown. But if we talk about the Polynesian community as a whole, then we can assume that in it all members jointly owned land (that is, it was communal, common land) and were engaged in agriculture together.

In addition to the tribes and tribal communities, which formed the basis of the social organization of the Rapanui society, there were larger associations that were political in nature. Ten tribes, or mata(rap. mata), were divided into two warring unions. The tribes of the west and northwest of the island were usually called people Tu'u is the name of a volcanic peak near Anga Roa. They were also called mata nui. The tribes of the eastern part of the island in historical legends are called "people of Hotu-iti".

The system of hierarchy that existed on the island in the past has now disappeared. At the head of the hierarchy was ariki mau(rap. ariki mau), or supreme leader, revered by local tribes as a deity. Below were the priests, or ivi-atua(rap. ivi atua), and local nobility, or ariki paka(rap. ariki paka). Moreover, the whole tribe of the world belonged to the nobility, this is an exceptional case among the Polynesian peoples. It should be noted that in other tribes there were no Ariki-Paka at all.

At the next rung of the hierarchical ladder were warriors, or matato'a(rap. matato "a), often claiming political power. The lowest position was occupied kio(rap. kio), or dependent population (most likely, it was formed from members of the defeated tribe). The exact position of artisans in this ladder is unknown, but it is likely that they occupied a fairly high place in Rapanui society.

As in other islands of Polynesia, the Rapanui king lost his title after the birth of his eldest son. In fact, the king was in power as regent until his son became able to exercise his functions on his own. Adulthood came after marriage, after which the former king lost his functions. The exact duties of the Rapanui king are unknown. One of its main functions was superposition and subtraction.

The ancient Rapanui were extremely warlike. As soon as the hostility between the tribes began, their warriors painted their bodies black and prepared their weapons for battle at night. After the victory, a feast was held at which the victorious warriors ate the meat of the vanquished. The cannibals themselves on the island were called kai tangata(rap. kai tangata). Cannibalism existed on the island until the Christianization of all its inhabitants.

Europeans on the island

In 1687, the physician Lionel Wafer was on board the ship " Batchelor's Delight", commanded by the pirate Edward Davis. They noticed a vast strip of land, approximately 20 ° 27 'south latitude. Judging by the descriptions left, it is very reminiscent of Easter Island. However, the coordinates are very inaccurate. Therefore, it is incorrect to attribute the discovery of the island to Wafer or Davis.

April 5, 1722 the crew of the main ship " Afrikaans Galley» Dutch traveler Jacob Roggeven noticed land on the horizon - it was Rapanui. On the same day, the admiral named the island in honor of the Christian holiday of Easter. At the time of the discovery of the island by Roggeveen, about two to three thousand local residents lived on it.

For as much as 50 years, Europeans forgot about the existence of the island. The sailors continued to search mysterious earth Davis, the southern continent, which was never found. Meanwhile, fearing for her American colonies, she decided to annex the territories that lay near them. In 1770, Manuel de Amat y Hunyent ( Manuel de Amat y Junyent listen)) a colonial administrator, sent a ship " San Lorenzo"under the command of Felipe Gonzalez de Haedo ( Felipe Gonzales de Haedo) to the shores of Easter Island to annex it.

After the annexation of Rapanui, the island was named after the Spanish King Charles III and was named San Carlos (after Saint Charles, the king's patron saint). In the presence of the islanders, the declaration of the protectorate was read. In fact, the attempt to annex the island failed, and subsequently forgot about its existence and never laid claim to it again.

The English navigator James Cook landed on the island on March 12, 1774; he found the island devastated and noticed that the statues of Easter Island were identical to those found in the province of Manta (), and also compared them with monuments in. The French navigator Jean Francois La Perouse visited the island at the end of 1787. Russian captain Yuri Lisyansky on the sloop "Neva" visited the island on April 16 - 21, 1804.

"Rurik" at the anchorage near Easter Island

In 1816, a Russian ship sailed to the island "Rurik" under the command of Otto Evstafievich Kotzebue, who led the round-the-world sea voyage. On board the ship was the German romantic poet Adelbert Chamisso. However, the Russians failed to land on Rapanui due to the hostility of the Rapanui people.

1862 was a turning point in the history of Rapanui. At this time, the economy experienced a period of prosperity and more and more in need of labor. One of its sources was Easter Island, whose inhabitants became the object of the slave trade in the second half of the 19th century.

On December 12, 1862, 8 Peruvian slave ships moored in Anga Roa Bay. From 1000 to 2000 Rapanui were captured, among the prisoners was the king of Rapa Nui Kamakoi ( Kamakoi) and his son Maurata ( Maurata). In and on the Chincha Islands, the Peruvians sold the captives to the owners of mining companies. Due to humiliating conditions, starvation and disease, out of more than 1,000 islanders, about a hundred people survived. Only thanks to the intervention of the government, as well as the governor of Tahiti, was it possible to stop the Rapanui slave trade. After negotiations with the Peruvian government, an agreement was reached according to which the surviving Rapanui were to be returned back to their homeland. But due to diseases, mainly tuberculosis and smallpox, only 15 islanders returned home. The smallpox virus brought along with them eventually led to a sharp drop in the population on Easter Island, civil wars broke out, the old principles of social relations were forgotten, and famine began. As a result, the population was reduced to about 600 people.

Missionaries on the island and the history of Rapanui until the beginning of the 20th century

Christianity and, above all, the missionary of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Eugène Ayrault, played a significant role in the life of the Rapanui people. Immediately after landing on the island in 1862, the missionary began teaching the Rapanui, and within a few months six of the islanders were reading a catechism in French. However, it was impossible to stand aside where there was conflict between the ruling clans. On November 11, 1864, Ayro was picked up by a schooner sent for him to the island.

After 17 months, Eiro returned to Rapanui with the missionary Hippolyte Roussel and seven Mangarevans. The missionaries made their main center Santa Maria de Rapa Nui, which united two places - Anga Roa and Mataveri. The lands near them were bought from local residents in 1868.

An active conversion of the Rapanui to Christianity began, although the leaders of the local tribes resisted for a long time. On August 14, 1868, Eugène Ayrault died of tuberculosis. The missionary mission lasted about 5 years and had a positive impact on the inhabitants of the island: the missionaries taught writing (although they already had their own hieroglyphic writing), literacy, fought against theft, murder, polygamy, contributed to the development of agriculture, breeding previously unknown cultures on the island.

In 1868, with the permission of the missionaries, an agent of Brander's trading house, Dutroux-Bornier, settled on the island, and started breeding sheep on Rapanui. The heyday of its economic activity dates back to the period after the death of the last legitimate ruler, the son of the supreme leader Maurat, the twelve-year-old Grigorio, who died in 1866.

In the meantime, the population of Rapa Nui declined significantly and in 1877 amounted to 111 people.

At the end of the 19th century, many ships moored off Easter Island, the crews of which were mainly interested in the objects of art of the Rapanui culture. In 1871, the Russian corvette Vityaz sailed past the island, on board of which was the Russian traveler N. N. Miklukho-Maclay. However, due to illness, he was unable to land.

The first Chilean ships were sighted off Rapanui as early as the 1830s, but close trade ties were established only in the 1870s. Having also won the Pacific War of 1879-1883, Chile began active colonization of the lands. September 9, 1888 Captain Policarpo Toro Hurtado ( Policarpo Toro Hurtado) landed on the island and announced the annexation of Rapanui by Chile. The local church came under the jurisdiction of the city's archbishop. In 1898, Chief Riroroko went to Chile with a complaint about the abuses of the Chilean authorities, but died a few days later. Since then, there have been no paramount chiefs on Easter Island.

20th century

Numerous research expeditions to Easter Island began in the first quarter of the 20th century. From March 1914 to August 1915, an expedition of the English explorer C.S. Routledge worked on the island, which paid special attention to the study of stone burial sites ahu and stone statues moai. In 1934-1935. the island was visited by a Franco-Belgian expedition, which included such prominent scientists as A. Metro ( Alfred Metraux) and H. Lavasherry ( Henry Lavacherry).

In the 1950s, the Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl rediscovered Easter Island to the world, including experimentally reproducing by local residents and without the use of modern technology cutting down a statue from a mountain, transporting it around the island and placing it on a pedestal. In the book "Aku-aku" Heyerdahl put forward the theory that Easter Island was inhabited by the settlers of the Ancient One. In order to test this theory in 2015, the Norwegian Thorgeir Higraff organized the Kon-Tiki 2 expedition. On two wooden sailing rafts, similar in design to the ancient Inca rafts, the participants of this international expedition, among whom were four Russians, started on November 7 from Peru to Easter Island. On December 19, both rafts, having successfully covered about two thousand nautical miles, reached Easter Island, practically confirming Heyerdahl's theory.

Since 1914, the Chilean government began to appoint governors on the island. At first it was predominantly officers, both active and retired. Since 1953, Easter Island has been under the command of the Chilean Navy. The inhabitants of the island at that time were forbidden to leave the limits of Anga Roa or only with written permission, which significantly infringed on the rights of the Rapanui people. It was not until 1956 that living conditions on the island became more favorable, and local schoolchildren were allowed to study on the Chilean mainland. Since 1966, free elections have been held on the island.

Easter Island was visited three times by military dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Cult of "Birdmen" (XVI/XVII-XIX centuries)

See also: Rapanui mythology

Petroglyph depicting the deity Make-Make near the disappeared settlement of Orongo

About 1680 matato'a, the warriors of Easter Island, established a new cult of the god Make-make, who, according to Rapanui mythology, created man, and was also the god of fertility. So the cult of birdmen appeared, or tangata-manu(rap. tangata manu). One of the reasons for its occurrence was the decline of the Rapanui civilization, which was largely associated with the deforestation of the island.

There was a ceremonial village not far from the Rano Kau volcano Orongo, built to worship the god Make-make. This settlement became a place of worship. Every year, competitions were held between representatives of all Rapanui clans, in which participants had to swim to the islet of Motu Nui and find the first egg laid by a black tern, or manutara (rap. manutara). Moreover, the participants were in great danger, as these waters were teeming with sharks. The winning swimmer became the “Birdman of the Year” and was given a one-year right to control the distribution of resources intended for his clan. This tradition continued until 1867.

One of the sights of the Orongo village are numerous petroglyphs depicting "bird-men" and the god Make-make (there are about 480 of them).

rongo-rongo

Fragment of a tablet with the text rongo-rongo

Easter Island is the only island in the Pacific Ocean that developed its own writing system, rongo-rongo. The writing of texts was carried out with pictograms, the writing method was boustrophedon. Pictograms are one centimeter in size and are represented by various graphic symbols, images of people, body parts, animals, astronomical symbols, houses, boats, and so on.

Rongorongo writing has not yet been deciphered, despite the fact that many linguists have dealt with this problem. In 1995, linguist Stephen Fisher announced the decipherment of rongo-rongo texts, but his interpretation is disputed by other scholars.

In 1864, the French missionary Eugène Ayrault was the first to report the existence of tablets with ancient writings on Easter Island. By that time, the Rapanui people no longer knew how (or almost did not know how) to read them.

Currently, there are many scientific hypotheses regarding the origin and meaning of the Rapa Nui script. M. Hornbostel, V. Hevesy, R. Heine-Geldern believed that the letter from Easter Island came from through China, and then from Easter Island the letter came to Panama. R. Campbell claimed that this writing came from the Far East through. Imbelloni and, later, T. Heyerdahl tried to prove the South American Indian origin of both the Rapanui script and the entire culture.

Many experts on Easter Island, including Fischer himself, believe that all 25 tablets with rongo-rongo scripts appeared after the natives became acquainted with European writing during the Spanish landing on the island in 1770, and are only an imitation of writing, because the symbols used are the same.

Easter Island and the Lost Continent

Easter Island on the world map

Filmography

Beneath Easter Island, National Geographic, 2009
"Mysteries of history. Giants of Easter Island Mysteries of History. Giants of Easter Island), Prometheus Entertainment, 2010
Rapa Nui (Paradise Lost) - feature film, 1994.

Notes

Rapanui // Big Encyclopedia: In 22 volumes (20 volumes and 2 additional) / ed. S. N. Yuzhakova. - St. Petersburg. : Publishing Association "Enlightenment", 1900-1909.(Rapanui Island, see Easter Island)
Rapanui National Park (Easter Island) (Russian). UNESCO. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
Isla de Pascua duplica su población en veinte años por fuerte migración desde el continente | Plataforma Urbana
UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Rapa Nui National Park. (indefinite) . Retrieved April 13, 2007. Archived from the original on August 18, 2011.
Easter Island Foundation. Frequently Asked Questions. What's the difference between "Rapa Nui" and "Rapanui"? (indefinite) (unavailable link). Retrieved April 13, 2007. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007.
About Easter Island. location. (indefinite) (unavailable link)
Easter Island Statue Project. About Easter Island (indefinite) (unavailable link). Retrieved April 13, 2007. Archived from the original on June 7, 2007.
Great Soviet Encyclopedia. 3rd edition. Article "Easter Island".
This table was compiled using data from http://islandheritage.org/vg/vg06.html Archived February 23, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
The editors of the journal Science and Life. Mysteries of Easter Island. The discussion continues (Russian). www.nkj.ru Retrieved 5 September 2019.
The inhabitants of Easter Island ruined it with irrepressible consumption (indefinite)
Extinct plants - a selection of the most unusual representatives and interesting information about them with a photo(Russian) (indefinite)?. Publi (August 28, 2017). Retrieved 5 September 2019.
Easter Island Statue Project. About Easter Island. fauna. (indefinite) (unavailable link). Retrieved April 13, 2007. Archived from the original on June 7, 2007.
Easter Island Civilization Destroyed by Sweet Potatoes (indefinite) . lenta.ru. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
LILACS-Atención oftalmológica en Isla de Pascua: desarrollo, aspectos epidemiológicos y étnicos; Ophthalmologic care in Easter Island: development, epidemiology and ethnic asp…
Center for South Pacific Studies. The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Rapanui (Easter Island) (indefinite) (unavailable link). Dr. Grant McCall. Retrieved April 13, 2007. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007.
Mail, phones and the Internet (indefinite) (unavailable link)
Easter Island Foundation's Visitor Guide to Easter Island. Getting there by plane (indefinite) (unavailable link). Retrieved April 9, 2007. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007.
Bueno Latina. New air route to Easter Island
Easter Island Foundation's Visitor Guide to Easter Island. The Annual Tapati Festival (indefinite) (unavailable link). Retrieved April 12, 2007. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007.
Thor Heyerdahl. Aku-Aku. Fragments from the book
Jared Diamond "Collapse" ISBN 978-5-9713-8389-5, page 104
Dumont, Henry J.; Cocquyt, Christine; Fontugne, Michel; Arnold, Maurice; Reyss, Jean-Louis; Bloemendal, Jan; Oldfield, Frank; Steenbergen, Cees L.M.; Korthals, Henk J. & Zeeb, Barbara A.(1998): The end of moai quarrying and its effect on Lake Rano Raraku, Easter Island. Journal of Paleolithology 20(4):409-422. DOI:10.1023/A:1008012720960
Early Americans helped colonize Easter Island
Thor Heyerdahl's theory. Romance and facts...
Lars Fehren-Schmitz et al. Genetic Ancestry of Rapanui before and after European Contact, 2017
J. L. Flenley, Sarah King "Late Quaternary pollen records from Easter Island//Nature 307:47-50
Make-believe suicide (indefinite) . lenta.ru. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
Jared Diamond "Collapse" ISBN 978-5-9713-8389-5
7 main secrets of Easter Island | Publications | Around the world (indefinite) . www.vokrugsveta.ru. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
"There was no ecocide": anthropologists rewrote the history of Easter Island (indefinite) . https://nauka.vesti.ru.+ Retrieved September 5, 2019.
Thor Heyerdahl Aku-Aku. The Secret of Easter Island ISBN 5-17-018067-5, ISBN 5-271-05030-0
Chesnokov A. About people, winds and rafts in the ocean: The history of travel from South America to Easter Island and back - [b.m.]: Publishing decisions, 2017. - 288 p. - ISBN 978-5-4485-7529-7.
Steven Fischer Rongorongo: The Easter Island Script. Oxford University Press, 1997.

Literature

Kondratov A. M. Giants of Easter Island. - M.: Soviet artist, 1966. - 192 p. - (Pages of art history). - 73,000 copies.
Krendelev F. P., Kondratov A. M. Silent guardians of secrets (riddles of Easter Island) / Otv. ed. acad. A. P. Okladnikov; USSR Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch, Buryat Branch, Geological Institute. - : The science. Siberian department, 1980. - 208 p. - (Popular science series). - 100,000 copies.
Butinov N. A. On the history of the settlement of Easter Island (based on legends and tablets with inscriptions)// Culture of the peoples of Indonesia and Oceania. Collection of the XXXIX Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography / Institute of Ethnography. N.N. Miklukho-Maclay of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. - L.: Science. Leningrad. department, 1984.
Thor Heyerdahl "Journey to the Kon-Tiki"
Chesnokov A. About people, winds and rafts in the ocean: The history of travel from South America to Easter Island and back - [b.m.]: Publishing decisions, 2017. - 288 p. - ISBN 978-5-4485-7529-7.
Diamond Jared Collapse: How and Why Some Societies Prosper and Others Fail. - M.: Astrel: CORPUS, 2012. - 800 p.

in foreign languages

Dr. Stéphen-Chauvet "Easter Island and its mysteries". Translated by Ann M. Altman. First published in 1935. Translation prepared 2004.
Metraux Alfred "Easter Island: A Stone-Age Civilization of the Pacific"; Oxford University Press, 1957 (book available to www.questia.com subscribers).
Fischer Steven Roger "Rongorongo: The Easter Island Script History, Traditions, Texts". Clarendon Press: Oxford, England, 1997 (book available to www.questia.com subscribers).
Routledge Scoresby The Mystery of Easter Island. The story of an expedition. London, 1919
Thomson, William J. 1891. Te Pito te Henua, or Easter Island. Report of the United States National Museum for the Year Ending June 30, 1889. Annual Reports of the Smithsonian Institution for 1889. 447-552. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
Dransfield J. 1991 123. Paschalococos disperta J. Dransfield gen. et sp. nov. In G. Zizka Flowering plant of Eastern Island PHF3, wissenschaftliche Berichte, Palmengarten, Frankfurt.

Links

Idols of Easter Island, Chile 360° Aerial Panorama on AirPano
Easter Island official website (Spanish)
Website of the Anthropological Museum named after Father Sebastian Englert (Spanish)
Easter Island News (Spanish)
Easter Island Foundation
International Rongo-Rongo Server with Easter Island Texts (English)
Photos of the island on Flickr
A story about Easter Island on the Details website (Russian)

It is the most remote inhabited island in the world. The distance to the continental coast of Chile is 3703 km, to Pitcairn Island, the nearest inhabited place, is 1819 km. The island was discovered by the Dutch traveler Jacob Roggeveen on Easter Sunday 1722.

The capital of the island and its only city is Hanga Roa. In total, 5034 people live on the island ().

Rapa Nui is largely known for its moai, or stone statues made of compressed volcanic ash, which, according to local residents, contain the supernatural power of the ancestors of the first king of Easter Island - Hotu-Matu'a. In 1888, annexed by Chile. In 1995 national park"Rapa Nui" has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Island names

Easter Island has many names:

Hititeairaghi(rap. Hititeairagi), or Hit-ai-ranks(rap. Hiti-ai-rangi);
Tekaouhangoaru(rap. Tekaouhangoaru);
Mata-ki-te-ragi(rap. Mata-ki-te-Ragi - translated from Rapanui "eyes looking at the sky");
Te-Pito-o-te-henua(rap. Te-Pito-o-te-henua - "navel of the earth");
Rapa Nui(rap. Rapa Nui - "Great Rapa"), a name mainly used by whalers;
san carlos island(English) San Carlos Island), so named by González Don Felipe in honor of the King of Spain;
Teapi(rap. Teapi) - so called the island James cook;
Waihu(rap. Vaihu), or waihou (rap. Vaihou), there is a variant Vaygu , - this name was also used by James Cook, and later by Forster and La Perouse (a bay in the northeast of the island is named after him);
Easter Island(English) Easter Island), so named by the Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen because he discovered it on Easter Day 1722.

Very often, Easter Island is called Rapa Nui (translated as "Big Rapa"), although it is not of Rapanui, but of Polynesian origin. The island got its name thanks to the Tahitian navigators who used it to distinguish between Easter Island and the island of Rapa Iti (translated as "Little Rapa"), lying 650 km south of Tahiti, and having a topological similarity with it. The very name "Rapa Nui" has caused a lot of controversy among linguists about the correct spelling of this word. Among English-speaking specialists, the word "Rapa Nui" (2 words) is used to name the island, the word "Rapanui" (1 word) - when talking about the people or local culture.

Geography

Easter Island is a unique territory in the southeast Pacific Ocean, which is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world from land. It is located 3703 km from the coast of the nearest mainland in the east (South America) and 1819 km from the nearest inhabited islands in the west (Pitcairn Island). Island coordinates: -27.116667 , -109.35 27°07′ S sh. 109°21′ W d. / 27.116667°S sh. 109.35°W d.(G)(O). The area of the island is 163.6 km². The nearest uninhabited land is the Sala y Gomez archipelago, apart from a few rocks near the island.

The trunk of a toromiro, with a diameter of a human thigh and thinner, was often used in the construction of houses; spears were also made from it. In the XIX-XX centuries, this tree was exterminated (one of the reasons was that the young shoots were destroyed by the sheep brought to the island).

Fauna

Before the Europeans arrived on the island, the fauna of Easter Island was mainly represented by marine animals: seals, turtles, crabs. Until the 19th century, chickens were bred on the island. The species of local fauna that previously inhabited Rapa Nui have become extinct. For example, a species of rat Rattus exulans, which in the past the locals used for food. Instead, rats of the species Rattus norvegicus And Rattus rattus, which became carriers of various diseases previously unknown to the Rapanui.

Now 25 species of sea birds nest on the island and 6 species of land birds live.

Population

It is estimated that during the cultural heyday of Easter Island in the 16th and 17th centuries, the population of Rapa Nui was between 10,000 and 15,000 people. Due to the ecological catastrophe that broke out as a result of the anthropogenic factor, as well as clashes between residents, the population by the time the first Europeans arrived was reduced to 2-3 thousand people. The number of 3,000 inhabitants was also indicated by James Cook when visiting the island. By 1877, as a result of the export of local residents to Peru for hard labor, epidemics, and extensive sheep breeding, the population decreased even more and amounted to 111 people. By 1888, the year of Chile's annexation of the island, 178 people lived on the island.

Administrative management

About two dozen police officers operate on the territory of the island, mainly responsible for security at the local airport.

Infrastructure

Other infrastructure facilities (church, post office, bank, pharmacy, small shops, one supermarket, cafes and restaurants) mainly appeared in the 1960s. The island has a satellite phone, Internet and even a small disco for the locals. To call Easter Island, you need to dial the Chile code +56, the Easter Island code +32 and, since August 5, 2006, the number 2. After that, a local number consisting of 6 digits is dialed (and the first three will be 100 or 551 - these are the only valid prefixes on the island).

Tourism

Anakena - the most famous beach of the island

Attractions

Profile of the fallen idol against the background of the crater of the Rano Roratka volcano

How they were delivered to the coast is unknown. According to legend, they "walked" on their own. Recently, enthusiastic volunteers have found several ways to transport stone blocks. But what exactly the ancient inhabitants used (or some of their own) has not yet been determined. The Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl in his book "Aku-Aku" gives a description of one of these methods, which was tested in action by local residents. According to the book, information about this method was obtained from one of the few remaining direct descendants of the Moai builders. So, one of the Moai, overturned from the pedestal, was hoisted back by using logs slipped under the statue as levers, by swinging which it was possible to achieve small movements of the statue along the vertical axis. Movements were recorded by lining the upper part of the statue with stones of various sizes and alternating them. Actually, the transportation of the statues could be carried out by means of a wooden sledge. The local resident presents this method as the most probable, but he himself believes that the statues still reached their places on their own.

Many unfinished idols are in the quarries. A detailed study of the island gives the impression of a sudden cessation of work on the statues.

Rano Raraku- one of the most interesting places for tourists. At the foot of this volcano there are about 300 moai, of various heights and at various stages of readiness. Not far from the bay is ahu Tongariki, the largest ritual site with 15 statues of various sizes installed on it.
On the shore of the bay Anakena one of the most beautiful beaches of the island with crystal white coral sand is located. Swimming is allowed in the bay. Picnics are organized for tourists in palm groves. Also not far from the Anakena bay are ahu Ature-Hooks and ahu Naunau. According to ancient Rapanui legend, it was in this bay that Hotu-Matu'a, the first king of Rapa Nui, landed with the first settlers of the island.
Te-Pito-te-henua(rap. Navel of the Earth) - a ceremonial platform on an island made of round stones. Quite a controversial place on Rapa Nui. Anthropologist Christian Walter claims that Te Pito-te-henua was established in the 1960s to attract gullible tourists to the island.
On the volcano early kao there is an observation deck. Nearby is the ceremonial site Orongo.
puna pau- a small volcano near Rano Khao. In the distant past, a red stone was mined here, from which “headdresses” were made for local moai.

Story

Settlement and early history of the island

Before the advent of Europeans, two different peoples lived on the island - “long-eared”, who dominated and had a peculiar culture, script, built moai, and “short-eared”, who occupied a subordinate position. During the uprising of the short-ears, which took place presumably in the 16th century, all the long-ears were exterminated, and their culture was lost. In the future, it turned out to be extremely difficult to restore information about the former culture of Easter Island, only fragmentary information remained.

Occupations of the ancient Rapanui

Easter Island is currently a treeless island with infertile volcanic soil. However, by the time of settlement by Polynesians in the 9th-10th centuries, according to palynological studies of cores from the soil, the island was covered with dense forest cover.

In the past, as now, the slopes of the volcanoes were used for orchards and the cultivation of bananas.

According to Rapa Nui legends, how plants ( Triumfeta semitriloba), marikuru ( Sapindus saponaria), makoi ( Thespesia populnea) and sandalwood were brought by the king of Hotu-Matu'a, who sailed to the island from the mysterious homeland of Mara'e Renga (Eng. Mara "e Renga). This really could happen, since the Polynesians, populating new lands, brought with them the seeds of plants that were of great practical importance. The ancient Rapanui people were very well versed in agriculture, plants, and the peculiarities of their cultivation. Therefore, the island could well feed several thousand people.

One of the problems of the island has always been the lack of fresh water. There are no full-flowing rivers on Rapa Nui, and water after rains easily seeps through the soil and flows towards the ocean. The Rapanui built small wells, mixed fresh water with salt water, and sometimes drank just salt water.

In addition to the tribes and tribal communities, which formed the basis of the social organization of the Rapanui society, there were larger associations that were political in nature. Ten tribes, or mata (rap. mata), were divided into two warring unions. The tribes of the west and northwest of the island were usually called people Tu'u is the name of a volcanic peak near Hanga Roa. They were also called mata nui. The tribes of the eastern part of the island in historical legends are called "people of Hotu-iti".

Ahu Te Pito Cura - the center of the world in the folklore of the inhabitants of Easter Island

The ancient Rapanui were extremely warlike. As soon as the hostility between the tribes began, their warriors painted their bodies black and prepared their weapons for battle at night. After the victory, a feast was held at which the victorious warriors ate the meat of the vanquished. The cannibals themselves on the island were called kai tangata (rap. kai tangata). Cannibalism existed on the island until the Christianization of all its inhabitants.

Europeans on the island

"Rurik" at the anchorage near Easter Island

In 1868, Dutroux-Bornier, an agent of Brander's trading house, settled on the island with the permission of the missionaries ( Dutroux Bornier), who took up sheep breeding in Rapa Nui. The heyday of its economic activity dates back to the period after the death of the last legitimate ruler, the son of the supreme leader Maurat, twelve-year-old Grigorio, who died in 1866.

Meanwhile, the population of Rapa Nui declined significantly and in 1877 amounted to 111 people.

Cult of "Birdmen" (XVI/XVII-XIX centuries)

Motu Nui Island as seen from Orongo

One of the sights of the Orongo village are numerous petroglyphs depicting "bird-men" and the god Make-make (there are about 480 of them).

rongo-rongo

Fragment of a tablet with the text rongo-rongo

Easter Island is the only island in the Pacific Ocean that has developed its own writing system, rongo-rongo. The writing of texts was carried out with pictograms, the writing method was boustrophedon. Pictograms are one centimeter in size and are represented by various graphic symbols, images of people, body parts, animals, astronomical symbols, houses, boats, and so on.

Rongorongo writing has not yet been deciphered, despite the fact that many linguists have dealt with this problem. In 1995, the linguist Stephen Fisher announced the decipherment of rongo-rongo texts, but his interpretation is disputed by other scholars.

The French missionary Eugene Ayrault was the first to report the existence of tablets with ancient writings on Easter Island in 1864.

Currently, there are many scientific hypotheses regarding the origin and meaning of the Rapa Nui script. M. Hornbostel, V. Hevesy, R. Heine-Geldern the Easter Island letter was believed to have come from India via China, and then from Easter Island the letter made its way to Mexico and Panama. R. Campbell claimed that this script came from the Far East via New Zealand. Imbelloni and later T. Heyerdahl tried to prove the South American Indian origin of both the writing of Rapa Nui and the entire culture. Many experts on Easter Island, including Fischer himself, believe that all 25 tablets with rongo-rongo scripts appeared after the natives became acquainted with European writing during the Spanish landing on the island in 1770.

Easter Island and the Lost Continent

Easter Island on the world map

This "Davis Land", which much later became identified with Easter Island, reinforced the conviction of cosmographers of that time that a continent existed in this region, which was, as it were, a counterweight to Asia and Europe. This led to the fact that brave sailors began to search for the lost continent. However, it was never found, with hundreds of Pacific islands discovered instead.

With the discovery of Easter Island, it became widely believed that this is the continent eluding man, on which a highly developed civilization existed for thousands of years, which later disappeared into the depths of the ocean, and only high mountain peaks survived from the continent (in fact, these are extinct volcanoes). ). The existence of huge statues on the island, moai, unusual Rapanui tablets only reinforced this opinion.

However, modern study of adjacent waters has shown this to be unlikely.

Easter Island is located 500 km from a range of seamounts known as the East Pacific Rise, on the Nazca lithospheric plate. The island is located on top of a huge mountain formed from volcanic lava. The last volcanic eruption on the island occurred 3 million years ago. Although some scientists suggest that it happened 4.5-5 million years ago.

According to local legends, in the distant past, the island was large. It is quite possible that this was the case during the Pleistocene Ice Age, when the level of the World Ocean was 100 meters lower. According to geological studies, Easter Island was never part of the sunken continent.

Notes

UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Rapa Nui National Park. . Archived from the original on August 18, 2011. Retrieved April 13, 2007.
Easter Island Foundation. Frequently Asked Questions. What's the difference between "Rapa Nui" and "Rapanui"? . (unavailable link - story) Retrieved April 13, 2007.
About Easter Island. location. . (unavailable link - story) Retrieved April 13, 2007.
Easter Island Statue Project. About Easter Island. (unavailable link - story) Retrieved April 13, 2007.
Great Soviet Encyclopedia. 3rd edition. Article "Easter Island".
This table was compiled using data from http://islandheritage.org/vg/vg06.html
Easter Island Statue Project. About Easter Island. Flora. . (unavailable link - story) Retrieved April 13, 2007.
Easter Island Statue Project. About Easter Island. fauna. . (unavailable link - story) Retrieved April 13, 2007.
ethnologue.com.

ocean view

Easter Island has a unique landscape with volcanic craters, lava formations, glowing blue water, beaches, low hills, livestock farms and many archaeological sites, most of which are devoted to the study of moai figures. They reach a height of 10 m. One of the figures, on the Anakena beach, was installed almost in its original position, and a memorial plaque was placed next to it in memory of the arrival of Thor Heyerdahl in 1955.

The rest of the figures are scattered around the island. Each of them has its own name. Poike is a statue with an open mouth, which is very loved by the locals. Ahu Tahai is another notable statue, with beautifully shaped eyes and a hairdo on top of her head. From here you can reach two of the many caves on the island - one of them seems to have been the center of religious ceremonies.

History of Easter Island

Sailors, when they first saw the island, were amazed by these colossal stone statues that lined the coast of the island. What kind of people were they capable of installing multi-ton stone giants? Why did they settle in such a secluded place? Where did the stone from which the sculptures are made come from?

The first settlers on the island were Polynesians in the 5th century BC. Their culture has survived to this day in the form of giant stone figures. (moai). The bearers of this culture were also called "long-eared", because it was customary for them to stretch their earlobes to the shoulders. In the XIV century. under the leadership of Hotu-Matu "and" short-eared ", adherents of the culture of" bird-men "landed on the island." By the end of the 17th century, they managed to destroy the "long-eared" natives, and their culture was lost. Only fragmentary information has been preserved about the ancient culture of Easter Island.

It is generally accepted that the leader of the tribe, on the eve of death, ordered to carve a moai in the tuff rock of the Rana-Raraku volcano - his own portrait in the form of a bird-man. After the death of the leader, moai were placed on ahu, i.e. in the sanctuary, and his gaze was fixed on the dwellings of the tribe. It was believed that in this way he was able to transfer strength and wisdom to the heirs, and at the same time protect them in a moment of trouble. Today, many moai (height 12 m, weighing several tons) restored and can be viewed. These are Tahai, Tongariki, Akivi, Hekii and Anakena - the place where Hotu-Matu landed.

In Orongo (Orongo), a place at the foot of the Ranu-Kau volcano, the first settlers built a sanctuary for the supreme deity Makemake and annually sacrificed to the bird-man. To do this, from the island of Motu Nui, located at a distance of 1 km, the first tern egg was delivered here, which was considered the incarnation of a deity. All local tribes participated in competitions for swimming speed, and the leader of the victorious tribe took the place of the bird-man.

At the foot of Rano Raraku volcano

His head and eyebrows were shaved, and his face was covered with black and red paint and settled in a special ritual dwelling. Thus, for a year he became the spiritual leader of all the tribes inhabiting the island. The warrior who won the competition, who brought victory to his leader, was not forgotten either - he was awarded with all kinds of gifts.

The inhabitants of Easter Island owned a script that is not fully deciphered. Small wooden tablets are covered with carved inscriptions. (gopdo gopdo) that have survived to this day. These tablets are in every house on the island, but none of the residents could really explain their meaning and purpose. Rongo-rongo no larger than 30-50 cm in size, the drawings on them depict animals, birds, plants and astronomical signs. Conventionally, the images can be divided into three themes: the first depict local gods, the second depict the actions of the islanders, including the crimes they committed, and the third are dedicated to the history of internecine wars. The islanders were also excellent portrait carvers, as the small church at Hanga Roa testifies. Here, ancient pagan beliefs merge with Christianity: a bird is certainly depicted above the heads of the saints.

According to legend, in 1400, a small handful of Polynesians, led by the leader Hotu Matua, reached a desert island in the vast Pacific Ocean in their canoes. They named it Te-Pito-te-Khenua, "the navel of the earth." And Hotu Matua established several holy places along the coast. On the islands where he came from - perhaps the Marquesas, there was a custom to install moai, monuments to the leaders of the tribe in the form of monumental stone statues.

The idols - numbering 900 in their completed form - have a height of more than 10 m and a girth of 4.5 m, and unfinished statues lie in the quarry, whose height should have been 22 m! Perhaps they were moved from place to place with the help of thick wooden rollers made from tree trunks that grew in the jungle.

The grandiose figures first plunged onto tree trunks, which served either as rollers or sledges. They were then slowly pushed through miles of dense jungle. To cope with such work, the efforts of more than one hundred people would be required.

In 1722, the first European landed on the island - the Dutch admiral Jacob Roggeveen. On this day, the Christian world celebrated Easter, which is why the European name Rapa Nui comes from.

Captain James Cook visited Easter Island in 1774 and found that most of the idols were down, and some were completely broken or showed signs of abuse. The island was practically uninhabited, and the miserable remnants of the once numerous tribe huddled in fear in some terrible caves. What's happened? The islanders' explanations were jerky and contradictory. Archeology gave scientists more coherent information: soon after the departure of the Dutch expedition, a demographic catastrophe occurred on the island - overpopulation and famine. The cult of stone idols led to the fact that the forest on the island was reduced, respectively, reducing the sources of food. Several lean years in a row made the situation catastrophic. Bloody civil strife and cannibalism began. When Captain Cook arrived on the island, he counted only 4,000 inhabitants instead of the 20,000 reported by Roggeveen in 1722. But the worst was yet to come. In 1862, Peruvian soldiers landed on the island and took away 900 people as slaves. Later, part of the population was sent to Peru as slaves, and the rest also did not stay long on the island. By 1877, only 111 people remained on Easter Island. Later, part of the population was sent to Peru as slaves, and the rest also did not stay long on the island. In 1888, Chile annexed it to its territory. There was no self-government until 1966, when the islanders first elected their own president.

The eastern part of Easter Island, called Poike, was formed 2.5 million years ago as a result of a powerful volcanic eruption. After 1 million years, the southern part of the island, Ranu Kau, appeared, and 240 thousand years ago, Maunga Terevaka in the northeast, the highest island mountain (509 m).

On Easter Island there is a settlement of Hanga Roa, where most of the population lives. Their existence is provided mainly by tourism. There are various hotels and restaurants here, and the extremely friendly locals will make sure that your stay here is comfortable and unforgettable.

Since 1964, an airport has been operating on Easter Island, which has strengthened ties with the outside world. Every year, this mysterious piece of land is visited by at least 20,000 tourists. For the 3,800 people now living on the island, sheep farming, modeled after the end of the 19th century. is an important part of the economy.

When to come

The most suitable period to visit Easter Island is from October to April, during this period the air temperature warms up to 22-30 ° C, and the water in the ocean - up to 20-23 ° C. It often rains from May to September, the weather is windy and cloudy, but it is still warm and the temperature fluctuates between 17 and 20 °C.

Easter Island beaches

The beaches of Easter Island are some of the best in Chile, summer time the water warms up well, so families with children often come here. Anakena Beach deserves special recommendation: a quiet bay, tall palm trees, sand that, when wet, takes on a pink hue, silent statues of formidable moai - all this conquers at first sight and makes you forget about time.

Tapati Rapa Nui Festival

If you find yourself on Easter Island at the end of January, be sure to visit the Tapati Rapa Nui folklore festival, which is a competition of dance and music ensembles. Both island teams and teams from Tahiti participate in the competition.

In addition, a Queen will be elected during the festival. Moreover, not only the contenders themselves, but also their relatives will fight for the title. The girl who will be the most pretty and whose relatives will be able to catch the most fish and weave the longest cloth will win.

Visiting attractions

Since 2011, Easter Island has introduced a new payment system for visiting attractions. Arriving on the island, each tourist will purchase a bracelet on his hand, which will give him the right to multiple visits to all the sights of the island. The exceptions are the Orongo ceremonial center and the Rano Raraku volcano, which can be viewed once. The authorities were forced to take such a non-standard step, since so far a large number of tourists have tried to evade paying for a visit. Now the situation with the "hares" must be resolved radically.

Wristbands can be purchased at Mataveri Airport, they are valid for five days and cost $21 for Chilean residents and $50 for foreign tourists. The bracelet can be transferred to another person.

Mysterious moai

With the phrase "Easter Island", the first thing that appears before your eyes is the rows of huge moai statues, their stern gazes turned into the distance. The creation and history of these frozen statues for a long time remained a mystery to scientists, even today many aspects continue to remain not fully clarified or controversial.

It is believed that the inhabitants of Easter Island made moai statues in honor of deceased relatives. (in another version - dead leaders) and installed on a special platform, which was called ahu and was nothing more than a burial place. Each clan had its own ahu. The islanders worshiped moai, and they gave them strength and protected their descendants from various disasters. The rite of worship of the moai looked like this: opposite the ahu, a fire was made, next to which the worshipers were placed on their haunches, with their faces down, they rhythmically raised and lowered their palms folded together.

To date, it is known that the statues were made in the quarry of the extinct volcano Ranu Raraku, unfinished moai were also found there, including the largest 21-meter El Gigante. On average, the height of the statues ranges from 3 to 5 m, statues of 10-12 m are less common. On the heads of some statues, you can see "caps" made of red rocks of the Puno Pao volcano - pukao. They were supposed to symbolize the typical hairstyle of the islanders.

Most of the scientific debate revolves around how the locals managed to transport these huge statues from the quarry to the ahu platforms. There are currently two main versions. According to one, the statues were brought to their destination by portage using various wooden rails, stops and other devices. As an argument in favor of this version, its defenders cite the fact that there are virtually no forest areas left on the island, all of which were used to roll statues. In the mid 50s. 20th century Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl, together with the descendants of the native tribe of the "long-eared", carried out an experiment on carving, transporting and installing a moai statue. The last "long-eared" showed scientists how their ancestors carved statues with stone hammers, then dragged the statue with a drag in the prone position, and, finally, using a simple mechanism consisting of stones and three levers, installed it on the platform. When scientists asked why they had not told about this before, the natives replied that no one had asked them about it before. According to another version (it was put forward by the Czech researcher Pavel Pavel) the statues were moved in a vertical position with the help of cables. With this method of transportation, the impression was created that the statues were “walking”. In 2012, a group of anthropologists during the experiment successfully proved the legitimacy of this version.

Heads and Tails: Easter Island

Data

Name and Dimensions: Easter Island is also known as Rapa Nui. Its area is about 162.5 sq. km.
Location: The island lies at 27°S, 109°W. Politically, it is considered a territory of Chile. The nearest inhabited land is Pitcairn Island, more than 2,000 km to the west. To Chile 3700 km, to Tahiti - 4000 km.
Uniqueness: Fame for Easter Island brought its stone idols made from local volcanic tuff. More than 10 m high, they weigh more than 150 tons.
UNESCO World Heritage List: The island was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995.

Based on the name of the island. But the island was created long before the concept of Easter arose, and there are much more anomalies in it, so we will learn new knowledge right after the end of the world 🙂

Easter Island is an island in the Pacific Ocean, the most inland of all known islands (as a result, tourism to this island is expensive). The island is of volcanic origin and is located at the intersection of several lithospheric plates (below it is the boundary of the fault of giant tectonic plates, which, as it were, divide the ocean floor; the oceanic Nazca and Pacifica plates and the axial zones of underwater ocean ridges converge on the island). Well, the most famous attraction is stone statues:

Rano Khao (324 m)
Pois Catiki (377 m)
Terevaka (539 m - the highest point of the island)

Let's start our tour of Easter Island with stone statues. All stone statues are monolithic, that is, they are cut from a single piece of stone, and not glued or fastened together. Ancient craftsmen carved "moai" - stone statues on the slopes of the Rano Roraku volcano, located in the eastern part of the island, from soft volcanic tufa. Then the finished statues were lowered down the slope and placed along the perimeter of the island, at a distance of more than 10 km. The height of most idols is from five to seven meters, while later statues reached up to 10 and up to 12 meters.

On the head of the statues were hats made of red pumice, and the eyes were painted:

Tuff, or, as it is also called, pumice, from which they are made, resembles a sponge in structure and crumbles easily even with a light impact on it. so that the average weight of "moai" does not exceed 5 tons.

Stone statues were installed on stone "ahu" - platforms-pedestals, which reached 150 meters in length and 3 meters in height, and consisted of pieces weighing up to 10 tons from the same pumice.

According to another version, the stone statues of Easter Island are estimated much harder: they say that their weight sometimes reaches more than 20 tons, and their height is more than 6 meters. An unfinished sculpture was found, about 20 meters tall and weighing 270 tons.

In total, there are 997,397 stone moai statues on Easter Island. All moai, except for seven statues, "look" into the interior of the island. These seven statues are also distinguished by the fact that they are located inside the island, and not on the coast. A detailed map of the location of stone statues, as well as other attractions, can be viewed in this figure (click to enlarge):

It is also said that there are two kinds of statues on the island:

The first species, without "caps" (45% of the total) are 10-meter giants weighing 80 tons. All of them stand on the slopes of the Ranu Raraku crater chest-deep in sedimentary rocks - this is for the reason that they are much older than other statues, those with "caps". The fact that these statues are much older than the second type of moai is also indicated by the fact that the traces of erosion on them appeared much more clearly than on the "dwarf" 4-meter statues. In addition, 10-meter-high moai giants do not have "caps" and their appearance is slightly different from the second type. For example, their faces are narrower.
The second type is small 3-4-meter statues (32 percent of the total), which were placed on pedestals (ahu). All ahu stand near the seashore. These moai have bizarrely shaped "caps". This type of moai is very well preserved. Their faces are more oval than the narrow-faced statues of the first type.

The erection of statues on Easter Island is a stumbling block among "rationalists" and "otherworlders". The former claim that all the statues could have been installed on the island by ordinary people using ordinary earthly means. Whereas the "otherworlders" cite anything as the forces for installing statues - from magic-mana to aliens.

The Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl in his book "Aku-Aku" gives a description of one of these methods, which was tested in action by local residents. According to the book, information about this method was obtained from one of the few remaining direct descendants of the Moai builders. So, one of the Moai, overturned from the pedestal, was hoisted back by using logs slipped under the statue as levers, by swinging which it was possible to achieve small movements of the statue along the vertical axis. Movements were recorded by lining the upper part of the statue with stones of various sizes and alternating them. Actually, the transportation of the statues could be carried out by means of a wooden sledge.

Whoever is right, one thing is true: all the statues were made on this very island, in quarries. And from there they were transported to the installation site. How did you find out? Very simple: a lot of unfinished idols are in the quarries. When looking at them, one gets the impression of the sudden cessation of work on the statues.

The photo shows one of the unfinished stone statues:

And here are a few more unfinished statues on the slope of the volcano:

Let us dwell on one more inexplicable yet phenomenon, which, of course, loses in scale, but goes head to head in terms of mystery.

This is the mysterious script of Easter Island. We can say that this is the most mysterious writing in the world. The latter fact is all the more significant because no written language has yet been found on the Polynesian islands.

On Easter Island, writing was found on relatively well-preserved wooden tablets, in the local dialect called kohau rongo-rongo. The fact that wooden planks survived the darkness of centuries is explained by many scientists by the complete absence of insects on the island. And yet most of them were eventually destroyed. But it was not the tree bugs accidentally introduced by a white man that were to blame for this, but the religious fervor of a certain missionary. The story goes that the missionary Eugene Ayrault, who converted the inhabitants of the island to Christianity, forced these writings to be burned as pagan.

Nevertheless, a certain number of tablets have been preserved. Today in museums and private collections of the world there are no more than two dozen kohau rongo-rongo. Many attempts have been made to decipher the contents of the ideogram tablets, but they have all ended in failure. By the way, studies of recent years have once again confirmed that on the Kohau Rongorongo tablets, each sign conveys only one word, and not the entire text is written on them, but keywords only, the rest were read by the Rapanui from memory.

There is another interesting fact on the island. So, the first picture in the article shows the heads of statues with underground torsos. So, this image is not far from the truth. So, if you take and carefully dig around some of the statues, you can dig up very interesting things:

That is, some of the statues are much larger than they appear. Moreover, how they ended up underground is unknown: either by themselves, or they were initially covered up.

Another mystery of the island is the purpose of the paved roads, the creation time of which is lost in the mists of time. On the island of Silence - another name for the island - there are three of them. And all three end in the ocean. Based on this, some researchers conclude that the island was once much larger than it is now.

And finally, a trump card that breaks the arguments of the "rationalists". So, next to Rapanui is the tiny island of Motunui. These are several hundred meters of a sheer cliff, dotted with numerous grottoes. Island on the map:

So, a stone platform was preserved on it, on which statues were once installed, later thrown into the sea for some reason. And the question arises - how? How rationally it is possible to deliver stone statues there? No way. Only with the help of unknown forces.

Which, by the way, begs the question: why? If rationalists justify the device of stone statues at least acceptable - for protection from floods or for protection from something else, or as objects of worship, etc., then the supporters of the "otherworldly" hypothesis of installing statues simply have nothing to say. Think for yourself: why would people who have supernatural abilities and can carry multi-ton blocks over a great distance do this? After all, they did not worship them: real power and superstition do not go hand in hand ...

So the hypothesis of "otherworldly" also disappears in vain. What remains? The facts remain:

Easter Island, remote from inhabited lands for many hundreds of kilometers
huge multi-ton statues (some are more than half dug into the ground)
undeciphered writing
roads of unknown destination
lack of coherent theories of how it was all done.

And it turns out that Easter Island is a mystery that has not yet been solved.

And it won't work if the end of the world happens tomorrow 🙂

Based on materials from http://agniart.ru/rus/showfile.fcgi?fsmode=articles&filename=16-3/16-3.html and http://www.ufo.obninsk.ru/pashi.htm

Mysterious moai statues Rapa Nui stand in silence, but speak more eloquently than any words about the achievements of their creators. Stone blocks from which statues are carved in the form of a head and torso, on average 4 meters high and weighing 14 tons. The effort to build these monuments and move them around the island must have been considerable, but no one knows exactly why the people of Rapa Nui set themselves such a task. Most scholars suspect that moai were created in honor of ancestors, leaders, or other important characters, however, there is no oral or written evidence of this on the island, so one cannot be sure of this. Polynesian society flourished in this unique place after hardy people led a fleet of wooden outrigger canoes to this tiny speck in the immensity of the Pacific Ocean. Here, isolated approximately 3,700 kilometers west of South America and 1,770 kilometers from the nearest neighboring island, Rapa Nui has developed an excellent architectural and artistic culture. This culture reached its zenith during the 16th century when approximately 900 moai were carved and erected throughout the island.
It is believed that the decline Rapa Nui followed because of the ecological catastrophe that they themselves created. It is not yet clear when the islands were first settled; Estimates vary from 800 AD to 800 AD. before 1200. It is also not clear how quickly the island ecosystem was destroyed - but the main factor is the reduction of millions of giant palms to clear fields and build fires. It is possible that the Polynesian rats arriving with the human settlers ate enough of the seeds to help destroy the trees.
In any case, the loss of trees has exposed the island's rich volcanic soils to severe erosion. When the Europeans arrived in 1722, they found the island sparsely populated and mostly barren. Today, many tourists come here, mainly to visit the quarry. volcano Rano Raraku, where the stones were taken from to create almost all the moai on the island. Meanwhile, across the island, many moai are gradually being transformed from priceless figures into mere pieces of rock. Volcanic rocks are subject to weathering and great efforts are needed to preserve heritage Rapa Nui in their current, impressive form.

How to get to Easter Island

It is a miracle that once upon a time, the Polynesian people were able to get to Easter Island. However, now it is much easier to do this, it is enough to buy a plane ticket.

When is the best time to visit Easter Island

The peak season on Easter Island is the southern hemisphere summer, from January to March. Although the winter is also quite comfortable here, the average temperature is around 22 degrees, rarely dropping to 14 degrees. So, here it is quite pleasant to spend time at any time of the year. If you do not want to meet a lot of tourists, then come in the off-season.

How to get around the island

Cars, motorcycles and mountain bikes are available for hire and are good ways for visitors to explore the island's scattered archaeological sites. While most people visit Easter Island to learn about its history and culture, the island is also home to excellent diving, surfing, and enticing beaches.

All about car tuning

Easter Island: Mysterious Rapa Nui. What secrets does Easter Island hide? Who Discovered Easter Island

Etymology

Geography

Island climate

Flora

Fauna

Population

Administrative management

Infrastructure

Tourism

Attractions

Story

Settlement and early history of the island

Occupations of the ancient Rapanui

Public Relations of the Ancient Rapanui

Europeans on the island

Missionaries on the island and the history of Rapanui until the beginning of the 20th century

20th century

Cult of "Birdmen" (XVI/XVII-XIX centuries)

rongo-rongo

Easter Island and the Lost Continent

Filmography

see also

Notes

Literature

Links

Island names

Geography

Fauna

Population

Administrative management

Infrastructure

Tourism

Attractions

Story

Settlement and early history of the island

Occupations of the ancient Rapanui

Europeans on the island

Cult of "Birdmen" (XVI/XVII-XIX centuries)

rongo-rongo

Easter Island and the Lost Continent

Notes

History of Easter Island

When to come

Easter Island beaches

Tapati Rapa Nui Festival

Visiting attractions

Mysterious moai

Heads and Tails: Easter Island

Data

And it won't work if the end of the world happens tomorrow 🙂

How to get to Easter Island

When is the best time to visit Easter Island

How to get around the island