RP161 Easter Island

 RP161 Easter Island

If you wanted to get as far away from other people as you possibly could, Easter Island would be a good place to go. It's about 2,000 kilometers from its nearest neighbors, out in the southern Pacific Ocean.

Easter Island is a small triangle about 3,500 kilometers west of Chile. Easter Island is a special territory of Chile. It was discovered by a Dutch explorer in 1722, but it had been inhabited for about 1,000 years before that. Scientists think that the first settlers on Easter Island came from the Marquesas Islands, more than 3,000 kilometers away. Imagine making that journey in a small canoe!

Easter Island is famous for its huge stone statues, called moai, that line many of the island's coasts. The moai are statues of men with huge heads and stern faces. Archaeologists believe the statues represent ancestors. Easter Islanders put the statues up to allow the ancestors to continue to watch over their lands. The moai were made between AD 1100 and AD 1680. Amazingly, Easter Islanders used only hand tools, like chisels, to make them! Some of these statues weigh more than 80 tons! Archaeologists aren't sure how these statues were moved. It must have taken many people working together to transport them.

In addition to the moai, Easter Island has other stone carvings, stone buildings, and wood carvings. This unique culture developed its own written language, though most of it has been lost. Easter Island has suffered many tragedies, including war, hunger, slavery, disease, and environmental disasters. It can be difficult to be so far from the rest of the world. But Easter Islanders seem hardy and strong, like their statues. They are preserving their ancient culture while connecting more and more with the outside world.