Easter Island: An Exotic Location

Easter Island is perhaps what can be really said to be out of the world. It is situated in the Pacific Ocean and the closest continent to the island is 5.5 hours of air journey away. It has attracted archeologists and other travelers for ages and most believed even until very recent times that only the really tough hearted could really make it to the island. This was predominantly said because of the tough journey that had to be undertaken over the sea to reach the island. But now, with modern transportation facilities, the island had become much more accessible, with the tourism industry being the main source of income in the island. However, it is true that the Easter Island still remains to be the least populated island in the world and comparatively lesser traveled than any other island.

• Location: Easter Island is located in the Pacific Ocean and is politically is a part of Chile, South America. It lies about half way to Tahiti. It has been marked as a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO. It gets its name from the day on which it was discovered- on Easter Sunday, by a European vessel. It was known by the name of “Te Pito O Te Henua” by the original inhabitants of the islands, meaning the “Navel of the World” and now it is known as the Isla de Pascua in the local language.
• Importance: This Island is so important to archeologists because of the huge statues that are strewn all over the island. They are cut from huge rock faces and have a height of about the surrounding palm trees, measuring thousands of tons. There are about a thousand statues and archeologists and other scientists till today wonder that how they were raised on their platforms when there was no use of technology. They were carved and sculpted out of the stone by the inhabitants of the islands and no one knows to this day why so many statues were built and why were some of them thrown into the Pacific. It has been proved that these statues belonged to the prehistoric times so there has been a great deal of speculation regarding the engineering capabilities of the inhabitants.
• Varieties of Statues: A variety of statues have been found on the island and they all have different makes. Moai and Ahu are the most predominant types found and the statues are made from basalt, obsidian, scoria and tuff rocks. Around 887 Moai statues have been discovered so far and around 313 ahu statues. They are believed to be made in their own historic ages, under the rulers of that particular age.