Easter Island

Eastern Island is located far away in the Pacific Ocean, almost 4000 km from the coast of Chile. As a group of volcanic rocks, it is crossed by numerous caves, and since 1995 is registered in the UNESCO world heritage list. The flora is characterized predominantly by vast grasslands. It has also various families of grasses and compositae (Asteraceae), and bushes and eucalyptus complete the picture. Wild horses compose the fauna.

Visitors appreciate them as mysterious and interesting. The typical “Moai” are fascinating with their history in suspense.

History

The history of Eastern Island is long and turbulent. However, it is known only from 1722 when Jacob Roggeveen caught sight of the Island and at once gave it the name of the day of the discovery: Sunday of Easter. The inhabitants adored huge stone figures (Moais) that even today give testimony of a lost culture. The attention of the world to Rapa Nui was awakened for the first time.

140 years later thousands of inhabitants where kidnapped. The few survivors brought diseases the when they came back to the Island, so in 1888 when Captain Policarpo Toro annexed the Island to Chilean territory, he only found a few hundred people.

But where did the first inhabitants came from? A widespread theory is that they came from Polynesia, but also Egyptian exiles or survivors from the catastrophe of Atlántico could have been the first Rapa Nui. There is also the thesis about the occupation by the South American, who among other things brought the art of stone carving to the Island. The legends of Rapa Nui and their colossal Moais still exist. Today they are the basis of the touristic development of the Island. Since 1967 there is a small airport that connects the Island to the rest of the world, offering regular flights to Santiago or Tahiti.