Easter Island
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Easter Island is a remote Polynesian island in the Pacific Ocean that belongs to Chile, famous for its mysterious giant stone statues called moai that were carved by its indigenous Rapa Nui people. The island matters because its archaeological remains provide important insights into Polynesian settlement, culture, and the challenges of sustaining civilizations on isolated islands with limited resources.
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Easter Island (Spanish: Isla de Pascua, [ˈizla ðe ˈpaskwa]; Rapa Nui: Rapa Nui, [ˈɾapa ˈnu.i]) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, called moai, which were created by the early Rapa Nui people. In 1995, UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site, with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park. Easter Island is also the only territory in Polynesia where Spanish is an official language.
Experts differ on when the island's Polynesian inhabitants first reached the island. While many researchers cited evidence that they arrived around the year 800, a 2007 study provided compelling evidence suggesting their arrival was closer to 1200. The inhabitants created a thriving and industrious culture, as evidenced by the island's numerous enormous stone moai and other artifacts. Land clearing for cultivation and the introduction of the Polynesian rat led to gradual deforestation. By the time of European arrival in 1722, the island's population was estimated to be 2,000 to 3,000. European diseases, Peruvian slave raiding expeditions in the 1860s, and emigration to other islands such as Tahiti further depleted the population, reducing it to a low of 111 native inhabitants in 1877.