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The islands of the Pacific Ocean_7

Easter island

Easter Island ( Rapa Nui) is a remote island of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, best known for its monumental statues (the moai) and its unique oceanic writing (The Rongo-Rongo).

The island is 3,680 kilometers from the Chilean coast and 4,050 kilometers from Tahiti, the nearest inhabited island being Pitcairn Island more than 2,000 kilometers to the west. As such, it is the most remote settlement in the world (after the island of Tristan da Cunha).

Detailed topographic map in English of Easter Island

Author: Eric Gaba. Source: commons.wikimedia.org

The island covers 163.6 km2; The highest point of the island at 507 meters above sea level (Maunga Terevaka). There are three freshwater lakes in volcanic craters (Rano): Rano Kau, Rano Raraku and Rano Aroi but no permanent watercourses.

Caldera Lake

Author: kai2015. Source: pixabay.com

Easter Island Landscape

Author: Nicolas de Camaret. Source: flickr.com (Some rights reserved)

Rano Raraku

Author: Robert Nyman.Source: flickr.com (Some rights reserved)

Easter Island and these islets form part of the Sala y Gómez range, mainly underwater, which begins in Pukao and extends 2,700 km to the east as far as Nazca.
The islands of Pukao, Moai and Easter have been formed over the last 750,000 years, the most recent eruption dates from just over 100,000 years ago.

The climate of Easter Island is subtropical maritime, temperate (16°-28°) and very rainy all year round (1138 mm).

The coast near the city Hangaroa capital of the Easter Island

Author: tupesa. Source: pixabay.com

Motu Nui, with the smaller Motu Iti and the sea stack of Motu Kao Kao, taken from Orongo on the Rano Kau volcano on Easter Island

Author: Aurbina in Wikipedia anglais

A large number of moai on the south side of Rano Raraku on Easter Island, some half-buried, some left « under construction » in the mountain.

Author: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen. Source: pixabay.com

The population was 5035 inhabitants (2011). Most of the inhabitants are of Polynesian origin as their language, Austronesian. The date of the Polynesian settlement of the island is not precisely determined. Radiocarbon measurements published in 20066 revealed the first recent settlements around 1200 AD.

Rapa Nui

Author: myeviajes. Source: pixabay.com

Early immigrants had succeeded in building, from fairly limited resources, a complex society well adapted to its environment. However, the growing importance of ancestor worship has resulted in the erection of hundreds of statues (moai) that consumed most of the Island’s resources. In the years 1500 to 1600, the island had experienced an environmental crisis at the end of which the religious base of the Pascuane society changed. Construction of the statues and ceremonial platforms ceased, the cult of make-make and the man bird Tangata manu became important. The indigenous people were there when the diseases brought by newcomers (Europeans) and deportations (the slavery practiced by the Peruvian farmers of guano) reduced their population to a hundred and eleven. With the arrival of European (initially French) planters and missionaries and their Polynesian agricultural workers (most of them from Rapa, who joined the indigenous people, formed the Rapa-Nui people), the inhabitants of the island were Finally become Catholics.

Population of the Easter Island and Moai statues during the visit of the expedition La Pérouse in 1786.

Author:Duché de Vancy. Source: fr.wikipedia.org

Cave Mural Painting

Author: kai2015. Source: pixabay.com

On September 9, 1888, the island was annexed on behalf of Chile by Lieutenant-Commander Policarpo Toro (1856-1921), who had been staying there since 1886 and was conducting negotiations with the inhabitants, despite some attempts by France to counteract them.The island is divided between the « reserve » of Hanga Roa, 6% of the surface of the island, where the Rapa-Nui are parked, and the Williamson-Balfour Company, which owns the rest and raises sheep, In 1953.
In 1966, the Pascuans received Chilean nationality, were allowed to leave the reserve, and the island became a common territory.

Finally, on July 30, 2007, a Chilean constitutional reform, endowed the island with a status of « special territory », but for the moment it continues to be administered as a province of the V Region (Valparaíso).

Moais in Caldera

Author: kai2015. Source: pixabay.com

moais

Author: antoinese0. Source: pixabay.com

 

Easter Island Ahu Tongariki

Author: Nicolas de Camaret. Source: flickr.com (Some rights reserved)

Moais (stone statues) on Ahu Nau, Anakena Beach, Easter island

Author: Guillaume Massardier. Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Tapati Festival, Easter Island

Author: Robert Nyman.Source: flickr.com (Some rights reserved)

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Data Source Provider: wikipedia.org