Chile - Easter Island

Hello Steemians, let visit the Easter Island in Chile. Easter Island is a Chilean island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle. Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapa Nui people. The mystery around Easter Island has intrigued many scientists over the centuries. How did the inhabitants come to this remote island? How did and did they transport their giant sculptures and why did they destroy a large part of these images? We are going to one of the most isolated places in the world looking for answers.

Easter Island (or Rapa Nui as the locals call it) is one of the most remote islands on earth. Officially it is part of Chile, but it has been removed more than 3400km from the mainland.

Although many scientists do not even agree about the time period in which the first people arrived on the island, most sources seem to speak in the thirteenth century. It has been discovered that this first colonization originated from Polynesia, and that they purposefully colonized the island with large boats and with many people. This is a remarkable fact for that time, given the vast distance between Easter Island and any other type of island in the Pacific Ocean.

The first inhabitants encountered a true paradise. The island was a large rainforest and provided residents with raw materials to make fabrics, cords and canoes. The many birds living in the forest provided the residents with food. The mild climate and the fishy waters around the island give the Rapa Nui (Easter Islanders) a carefree life.

To thank the gods for all this abundance, the inhabitants began to build the images (or Moai) that make the island so famous. These statues are views of their ancestors, and the presence of such an image was seen as a kind of guardian angel for a village. Because of their isolated way of life, the production of images was seen as a kind of free-range outlet for the islanders who did not have much else to do.