Easter Island is the most remote inhabited island in the world. The closest mainland landmass is Chile, 3,700 kilometers away. Administratively, the island is part of the Chilean region of Valparaiso - in 1888 Chile annexed this territory.
On famous island About 5,000 people live, a little more than half of them are indigenous people. Area – 164 sq. km. The island has the shape of a regular triangle.
There are no hazardous industries here. The water around the island is clean and clear. But at the same time, the flora and fauna are not distinguished by the great diversity that is inherent in many island formations in the water area Pacific Ocean. And those who love only beach “bounty holidays” are better off not flying here. This is a place for romantics and the curious.
Who discovered Easter Island?
The island was once covered with lush forests. The first settlers appeared here around 300 AD. They were presumably from the islands of French Polynesia.
And the first European who saw the mysterious and now world-famous idols was the Dutchman Jacob Roggeveen. It was he who, on Easter Sunday 1772, discovered a distant land in the ocean. It is to him that the island owes its modern name. The local name is Rapa Nui. Soon James Cook also visited the islands.
Easter Island was rediscovered by the world and our contemporaries in the middle of the last century by the famous Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl.
How to get to Easter Island
The flight from Santiago takes 5 hours. Flights are operated by the Chilean airline “LAN Airlines”, flight “Santiago – Tahiti” with landing at Mataveri Airport on Easter Island. You can also get here from the capital of Peru, Lima. Flights are regular, unlike shipping services. There is only one pier for small ships on the island.
Tourists travel around the island itself in rented cars, bikes, taxis and on foot. The distances are small - by car you can get from one side of the island to the other in 30 minutes, and go around the whole island in one and a half to two hours.
Hanga Roa "capital" of Easter Island
In addition to the airport, administrative center The island has several 3 and 4 star hotels, shops, restaurants, a post office, schools and a church. Almost the entire population of the island lives here and is employed in the tourism industry. There are only two streets in the town, without house numbers - all the residents know each other. Prices on the island “bite”, which is not surprising - after all, almost everything has to be imported.
Attractions of Easter Island - Moai
The main attraction of this amazing corner of the earth is the stone statues scattered throughout the island - Moai, as they are called here. There are about a thousand idols on the island. The height of some reaches 20 meters. All but seven, whose gaze is turned to the ocean, are arranged so that they look into the island.
The statues were made from compressed volcanic ash in quarries inside the island. There are many guesses and versions about how the statues were transported around the island. Everyone who visited the idol “factory” itself is left with the feeling that work stopped just yesterday, and not many centuries ago.
- Ahu Rano-Raraku (300 moai), ahu Tongariki (15 moai) and ritual site, ahu Ature and ahu Naunau are the most interesting places for visiting tourists.
- Anakena Bay and Beach is the most beautiful and largest of the few island beaches.
The Tapati Rapa Nui (Tapati) festival is held on the island every year at the end of January. It is accompanied by chants, dances and traditional competitions of the local residents - the Rapanui people.
Hititeairagi, Rapa Nui, Te Pito o te whenua, Tekaowhangoaru are all other names for the area we know as Easter Island. For most people, Easter Island is associated with something mysterious - and no wonder: it is famous for the huge stone statues lined up along the shore. They look with drawn eyes into the ocean, and this look is both creepy and mesmerizing. One of the main questions is how did these 10-meter idols get there? - still remains unresolved. Tourists flock here in the hope of unraveling the mystery, but return home covered in souvenirs and... without an answer.
Easter Island
How to get there
Easter Island is part of Valparaiso, one of the regions of Chile. There are two ways to get to the island, both of which are expensive. The first is on a tourist yacht or cruise ship, which sometimes come here. You can go to independent travel and in a couple of weeks call at the port.
The second way is by air; there is an airport on the island that accepts flights from the capital of Chile, Santiago, Tahiti and Lima. Flight schedules vary depending on the time of year: for example, from December to March, flights operate only once a week. In other months - twice a week. The flight from Santiago lasts about 5 hours.
Search for flights to Santiago (the closest airport to Easter Island)
Transport
All the attractions of the island are located close to each other, and the territory itself is small. On Easter Island you can take a taxi, bike or rent a car. It is almost impossible to get lost on the island, since there are only two roads.
The average cost of renting a car is from 80 USD per day with a full tank of gasoline. By the way, it is better to refuel completely - this will be difficult to do on the island. Prices on the page are as of September 2018.
Beaches of Easter Island
There are several beaches on Easter Island, but Anakena is the best choice. Local residents even warn that you can only swim here. On sandy beach there are several cafes, and in general the local landscape is somewhat reminiscent Black Sea coast: there are stalls with cold water on the beach, natives are selling sweets and other snacks, the smell of barbecue is in the air. Only instead of the sea there is an ocean.
Cuisine and restaurants
There are quite a few small cafes on the island where you can have an inexpensive meal. On the menu you should choose seafood dishes, such as soup or tuna steak. In general, the steaks here are very good - made from meat and fish, with potatoes and herbs. Local beer is soft and very pleasant.
Some restaurants are built very close to the water. They stand on stilts, and the owners of the establishment can demolish one of the walls so that visitors can admire the view of the ocean.
Easter Island Hotels
There is only one town on the island where you can stay in a hotel - Hanga Roa. Most tourists prefer mini-hotels rather than chain operators, and yet the cost of living is rather high. The fact is that many goods are imported to the island from the mainland, which increases their price. The most expensive hotel on the island is Explora EN RAPA NUI. There are 30 rooms, a restaurant with an outdoor terrace, a bar, a souvenir boutique, an outdoor swimming pool, a massage parlor, and an outdoor jacuzzi.
One of the ways for island residents to earn money is by renting out apartments. At the airport, each new plane is greeted by a crowd of local residents, vying with each other to offer accommodation in hotels or in their homes.
There is also a camping site on the island - here you can pitch a tent or rent a very simple room for little money, with internet access. To get to the campsite, you need to find a guide at the airport with a sign Mihinoa - that’s the name of the place where you’ll be staying.
The shops
The sale of souvenirs is one of the main sources of income for the islanders. In stores and shops you can buy idols of different sizes, from pocket size to 2-3 meters. The main thing is that you can take this piece of wood out of the country to your homeland. Particularly popular are statues of “kawakawa” - either a person or a ghost - and, of course, magnets, necklaces, beads, hats, headbands, and embroidered shoes.
Entertainment and attractions of Easter Island
Moai
Stone moai are carved from petrified volcanic ash. These are stylized human figures with short bodies and elongated heads. The weight of each idol reaches almost 20 tons. According to local beliefs, they contain the supernatural power of the ancestors of the first king of Easter Island - Hotu Matua.
Moai stand along the coast and look out over the island. Hundreds of books have been written and films have been made about the history of their origin, but there is still no solution. Some believe that they were brought to the island by aliens, others are sure that such statues could only be made by human giants 3-4 meters tall. Another version is that these idols themselves came to the island, but subsequently forgot how to walk and remained here forever. There are about 900 statues on the island, most of them are located near the Rano Raraku volcano.
Volcanoes
The craters of the Rano Kau and Rano Raraku volcanoes are another attraction of Easter Island. It was from the remains of Rano Raraku that the moai were made. Unfinished statues are scattered in the pit of this volcano. The view inside Rano Kau is breathtaking - the crater is filled with rainwater, covered with islands of grass, and the sky is reflected in this giant lake.
Orongo village
The ceremonial village of Orongo is located on the edge of the Rano Kau crater. Ceremonies dedicated to the birdman were once held here. In the village you can find many cobblestones on which images of the god Make-Make and the bird-man are carved.
Hanga Roa Church
This is a Catholic church famous for its wood carvings. Looking at it, it seems that the building itself is carved from wood. Crafts work here, and music services are held on Sundays.
5 things to do on Easter Island:
- At the end of January - beginning of February, visit the unique Tapati festival, which probably has no analogues in the world. It takes place at the end of January or beginning of February. “Tapati” is a cross-section of Easter Island culture, and not an export version, but the real one. The natives sing, dance and measure their strength.
- Ascend to the ceremonial site of Te Pito-te-whenua, whose name means “navel of the earth” in Rapanui.
- Have a romantic picnic in the palm groves of Anakena Bay.
- Come up with your own legend about the moai - and then tell it to the locals. They love to hear versions of how the statues appeared at Easter. They will listen to you carefully, maybe they will write down your story, if it is unique, and place it in the collection of works of tourists.
- Visit the village of Orongo and see numerous petroglyphs with images of bird-men and the god Make-Make. By the way, this island invented its own writing - rongo-rongo, which has not yet been deciphered.
Easter Islands amaze, surprise and delight. Dormant volcanoes, sparse vegetation, a vast ocean and stone statues on the coast made of pressed volcanic ash in the form of a human head with a body to the waist and a height of about 20 meters. Some have red stone caps on their heads.
The Easter Islands are considered the only place in Polynesia whose inhabitants had their own written language. Most modern scientists argue that the writing of local residents originated on this island and was not brought from anywhere.
How did it happen that a people about whom no one knew, knew, or heard for many millennia, had such a developed civilization that they could create their own chronicles, as well as statues of such quality that they did not fall apart under the hot tropical sun and could survive to this day. The mystery of Easter Island has not yet been fully revealed.
How exactly Easter Island appeared is still not completely clear. Scientists put forward different hypotheses - one more incredible than the other. For example, according to one version, Easter Island is a part of Lemuria, which was the ancestral home of all humanity, and for various reasons was flooded with water. Another hypothesis says that this island is all that remains of the famous Atlantis. Both versions can be confirmed by the myths of the islanders about the god Uvok, whom people angered so much that he split the earth with his fiery staff.
Tourists often ask questions about where Easter Island is, how to get there and who inhabits it. In any case, Easter Island now belongs to Chile and is considered the most remote inhabited island in the world from the continent. The closest place where people live to Pitcairn Island is just over two thousand kilometers away, and three and a half to the mainland coast of Chile.
The sights of Easter Island were discovered and discovered by the Dutch traveler Jacobson Roggeveen in 1722. Since this event happened on Easter Sunday, it didn’t take long to think about what to name the island. Although it is still called differently. For example, James Cook called it Teapi or Vaihu. Locals call it Rapa Nui (Great Rapa) - a name of Polynesian origin, as it was called by sailors from Tahiti.
Previously, when talking about the island, the natives mentioned names that translated from Rapa Nui meant “Navel of the Earth” or “Eyes looking into the sky.”
Easter Island itself is shaped like a right triangle with sides of 16, 18 and 24 km. In the corner of each are located extinct volcanoes, always attracting the attention of tourists. Therefore, it is not surprising that the island itself is of volcanic origin.
The vegetation here is extremely sparse. A tropical forest, which previously covered the entire Easter Island, disappeared from the face of the earth due to irrational human activity, and at the moment (according to botanists) there are no more than 30 species of plants on the island.
There are suggestions that several centuries ago (in the 16th-17th centuries) the island was inhabited by 10 to 15 thousand people. Due to constant wars among themselves, thriving cannibalism, as well as the destruction of the island environmental disaster, even before the arrival of the first Europeans, the population had dropped to three thousand. There is also a version that the island was inhabited in several stages by two different cultures. One culture was from Polynesia, the other from South America, possibly from Peru.
After Easter Island was discovered, some of the locals were enslaved and taken to Peru, while others died due to new diseases and epidemics. When the territory came under Chilean rule in 1888, Easter Island was found to have only 178 inhabitants. According to the latest census, by 2012 the number of inhabitants of the island had increased, and at that time the island was inhabited by almost 6 thousand inhabitants.
Stone sculptures
Easter Island gained its fame primarily thanks to ancient, mysterious statues made of volcanic stone, which the natives believe contain the supernatural power of their ancestors. Peculiar idols are another secret of Easter Island.
The Easter Island idols were made over three centuries, from 1200 to 1500. (there is an earlier date - the fourth century, but few adhere to this version), after which their production abruptly stopped. Researchers say that it looks as if people have been developing their skills for centuries, putting on a conveyor belt the production and transportation of Moai from stone - and suddenly, in an instant, they abandoned everything and left, leaving behind the blanks of sculptures, tools that can still be found in the found workshops, and leaving the finished Moai to lie along the roads along which they were brought down to the coast.
The Easter Island idols are about 20 meters high and represent a human head (some are wearing a red stone hat) with a torso. At the same time, the Moai look deeper into the island.
The question of how the sculptures appeared here arose as soon as James Cook and his team visited the Easter Islands and first saw huge Moai made of stone on the coast, and next to them the natives who had neither tools nor even their own housing and clothing.
It is worth noting that this mystery is still unsolved, and there are several versions about how they arose.
- Huge statues of Easter Island were created by representatives of ancient civilizations. If we adhere to the theory that Rapa Nui island- these are either the remnants of Lemuria or Atlantis, it is unlikely that anyone will be surprised by the fact that the ancient masters, who were extremely high level development, had the opportunity to create masterpieces of this level.
- Aliens. There are people who adhere to this version, and it was even mentioned in Erich Däniken’s film “Memories of the Future.”
- The statues were created by local inhabitants. In the crater of one of the volcanoes, researchers discovered traces of a workshop in which Moai were carved using stone axes and chisels. To confirm this version, the world famous researcher Thor Heyerdahl conducted an experiment in the mid-20th century - he persuaded local residents to make a statue. In just a couple of days they managed to carve a small figure from stone, extremely reminiscent of an ancient sculpture. After that, they transported it to the coast, swinging it with ropes and alternately pushing forward first one, then the other shoulder.
The traveler was not able to completely solve the mystery of the statues, since this method was only suitable for small statues, and how the Moai weighing 50 tons was moved remained a mystery. He also could not understand how they put hats on the colossi, each of which weighed about two tons.
How the colossi were transported. Versions
Local residents are still convinced that the Moai moved independently. According to one hypothesis, local priests forced them to move, according to another, they were revived by a witch who lived near the volcano. And they stopped carving the statues for a banal reason - the stonemasons ate a lobster in secret from the witch and did not treat the witch. She got angry and in anger knocked over all the Moai that at that time managed to reach the coast.
There is another version, already put forward by scientists. During special research, it was discovered that at the time the Polynesians appeared on Easter Island, there was a real jungle here - a huge number of trees, bushes and grasses grew, including palm trees, which are now completely gone. These trees were about 25 meters high and their diameter was approximately 180 cm.
It was the long trunks of these palm trees, completely devoid of branches, that were ideal for making huge pies out of them and transporting the Moai to their destination. Also, with the help of wooden beams, they could move the Moai to the shore.
Writing
In addition to the statues, Easter Island is also famous for the fact that it is the only Polynesian island whose inhabitants had their own written language. On special wooden tablets (kohau rongorongo) they wrote down various legends, myths, and songs in hieroglyphs. Some records have survived to this day - these are 20 tablets and 11 texts (some records are repeated).
In total, 14 thousand hieroglyphs were discovered on the existing tablets, each with from 2 to 2.3 thousand images.
The ancient inhabitants made tablets from dark shiny Toromiro wood, after which they carved images of lizards, toads, turtles, stars, spirals, etc. on them; you can even recognize a person with wings.
Absolutely all researchers agree that this letter originated here - despite the fact that it is hieroglyphic, it is still significantly different from classical signs. At the same time, the language in which records were kept in former times differs significantly from the modern one. spoken language local residents. Therefore, when scientists tried to decipher the records with the help of the natives, they failed.
Researchers struggled for a long time to solve the hieroglyphs, some even managed to partially solve them, until the American scientist Stephen Fisher made a discovery quite by accident. Deciding just to collect complete information about a writing unknown to anyone, he was able to read what was written and get to the truth.
It turned out that most of the records tell about the creation of all things. It turned out that the tablets that have reached us are not equivalent in terms of information value - 15 of them contain 85% of all texts of the ancient language, plus one is a calendar.
It was not possible to decipher absolutely all the surviving tablets, since some of them are so unique that they cannot yet be deciphered. Therefore, research ancient civilization are definitely not finished yet, and the history of Easter Island will yet be fully revealed.
Uniqueness easter islands manifests itself in ambiguous opinions about him. That is, on the one hand, people know everything about a given place, but on the other, nothing at the same time. His mysterious statues, formed from stone, are still silent witnesses of an ancient and unknown culture. But who and how could create these monumental rock sculptures?
A little geography. Easter Island is located in the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean, between Chile and Tahiti (Fig. 1). The local natives dubbed him Rapa Nui or Rapa Nui. Easter is the most remote island on the globe. The distance to the nearest piece of land in the west is two thousand ninety-two kilometers, and in the east - two thousand nine hundred and seventy-one kilometers. It is formed in the shape of a triangle, with extinct volcanoes on each edge.
The area of the island is about one hundred and sixty square kilometers. Easter Island recognized highest point above ocean level. It is located on a huge hill, which was called the East Pacific Rise. In view of this, Thor Heyerdahl wrote that the closest land that local residents see is the Moon.
The capital of the island, as well as its only city, is the city of Hanga Roa. The island has its own flag (Fig. 3) and its own coat of arms (Fig. 4).
Interestingly, Easter Island has/had several names: Waihu, Mata-ki-te-Ragi, San Carlos Island, Rapanui, Teapi, Tekaowhangoaru, Te Pito-o-te-henua, Hititeairagi, Easter Island.
Some legends claim that Easter Island was once part of one large country (many consider it to be a surviving part of Atlantis). This seems quite plausible, since today at Easter a lot of evidence was discovered confirming these legends: on the island there are roads leading directly to the ocean, a large number of underground tunnels have been dug, originating in local caves and paving the way in an unknown direction, as well as other less significant information and amazing finds.
Interesting data on underwater exploration of the ocean floor near Easter Island is provided by the Australian Howard Tirloren, who arrived here with Cousteau. He said that when they arrived here in 1978, they studied the bottom around the island in sufficient detail. Anyone who has gone down in a submersible will confirm that the mountains under water, even at shallow depths, have a rather unusual appearance: some of them even had holes made that resembled window connectors. And one day Jacques-Yves Cousteau found an unfamiliar deep-sea depression nearby, where he dived for another three days. When he returned, he wanted to explore this depression even more thoroughly. Cousteau was unable to examine anything in full, but according to him, silhouettes of walls can be seen at the bottom, forming something like a section big city. However, due to the people serving in the political police DINA, which Pinochet himself supervised, nothing came of it. According to Tirloren, they were forced to sign non-disclosure documents and were also asked to stop research, so all work was stopped. But what unusual could be in this depression? Why Chilean state security is so afraid of scientists remains a mystery. After the Pinochet regime, this issue was raised again, but to no avail. Thus, this fact does not exclude the assumption that a significant part of Easter Island sank during some kind of disaster.
In 1973–1977, several American oceanographers studied the oceanic depressions near Easter Island, namely near the Sala y Gomez ridge. As a result, they discovered sixty-five underwater peaks and agreed with the hypothesis of the existence of an unknown archipelago, which was in this area tens of thousands of years ago, and then sank into the water. But all subsequent studies were frozen without a compelling reason at the request of the Chilean government. “Island of Mysteries” still does not make it possible to unravel its mystery.
The geophysical information obtained confirms that the coast of Southeast Asia is slowly sinking into the ocean. Maybe this subsidence once happened faster and at one moment, like Atlantis, it plunged into the depths of the ocean, including the Pacific with its huge population and distinctive culture, traces of which are still found on Easter Island? And the various inscription tablets and art monuments are nothing more than preserved evidence of an ancient vanished civilization? After all, according to the testimony of the first resident of Easter Island, Eiro, in all buildings there were wooden planks or sticks containing some kind of hieroglyphs and symbols. Basically, these are images of unknown animals, which the natives continue to draw with stones to this day. Each image has its own designation; but in view of the fact that they make such items on very rare occasions, this suggests that these hieroglyphs represent only the remains of ancient writing. That is, the natives are only trying to follow long-standing customs, without trying to find any meaning in it.
MacMillan Brown, in his research, even tried to find out the approximate date of the death of Pacifida. In his opinion, this phenomenon could have occurred between 1687, when the English sailor Davis observed a large ledge in the area of Easter Island, and 1722, when Admiral Roggeveen found nothing in this place except for a small island. The cataclysm was evidenced not only by the unexpected stoppage of work in the quarries at Rano Raraku. Many areas of Easter Island have spacious paved roads that end in the ocean. Does this mean that these paths end deep underwater? Could it be possible to discover new evidence of a lost culture on the seabed?
There is one thing that completely destroys this hypothesis, and this is a question of chronology. At what point did land in the Pacific Ocean begin to sink? Three hundred years ago, or three thousand, or perhaps even three hundred thousand? Or is this figure in the millions? Geological and geophysical data indicate that the deepening of the land and the collapse of the Pacific happened precisely in the ancient period. Fauna and flora of islands such as Galapagos, New Zealand, Fiji, were formed from the mainland, but many centuries ago they were part of one huge continent. This led to the discovery of fossils here that have long since disappeared and are no longer found anywhere on the globe. In the same way, at one point the Australian continent broke away from Asia. Submergence of land at the location of Easter Island has not occurred since that ancient period.
Chubb's geological and oceanographic surveys near Easter confirmed the fact that it had not sunk a millimeter, and the coastline was as stable at the time the monuments were erected as it is today. This argument was repeated by the Swedish expedition, which established the geological stability of the island, which has lasted for at least a million years.
Studying the issue of the origin of the island itself, the author got the impression that many scientists do not set a goal to understand or reveal the truth, but pursue the goal of defending their own point of view, of proving what is beneficial to them. Or, moving in an absolutely impartial search, they come across postulates that are currently imposed on society as official, but at the slightest test they burst at the seams. This forces you to turn your research from the straight path to the thorny straights of the official jungle. It is not difficult to pay attention to the fact that most researchers evaluate available artifacts only from the point of view of the dominance of matter over spirituality, and nothing else.
In the process of studying the topic, a number of questions arose. Why do scientists, when faced with inexplicable archaeological artifacts and at the same time with the same incomprehensible behavior of authorities who openly prohibit research, do not sound the alarm in every possible way and do not try to convey obvious things to the public? Why don’t they build hypotheses that would include all findings and facts, and not just those that are convenient or understandable? How can one sometimes come up with theories without them seeming crude to the public? Are they really not interested in learning about the past of their planet, or do they simply have no free time due to everyday problems? Who really needed to build multi-ton statues on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean, place them around the perimeter of the island facing the ocean, and paint them with ornaments and patterns? What was it about their writing that when the first Europeans who visited the island saw it, they began to hastily eradicate it from the local population, so much so that after forty years practically none of the Rapanui people could not only write, but also read their household signs? One could argue that this was an accident and that the 18th century was a very long time ago, okay, but why aren’t excavations and research being carried out at the state level now? Why is it that if you now approach the statue beyond the fence, the person will face prison? And why did UNESCO prohibit excavations and research into the underground part of the statues? Another curious fact is that almost all modern researchers of the original culture of Easter Island claim that it is impossible to find out its true meaning or decipher the writing, and all that is read are ordinary everyday texts.
A people exterminated over half a century.
Fifty years later, in 1722, the Englishman James Cook and the Frenchman La Perouse visited Easter Island. Since then the situation has changed a lot. Many plains were abandoned. The once plump-cheeked inhabitants languished in poverty, and the statues filled with grandeur were almost all knocked down and lying on the ground. The ancient cult was erased from memory. There are only a few representatives left of the famous “long-eared” race; most likely, their death is associated with their rivals, the “short-eared”, who not only destroyed the tribe, but also their inherent culture. As a result of the events that took place on Easter Island, an entire era ended, which lasted more than one century, and possibly even a millennium. What period it was remains an unsolved mystery for many. Roggeveen and his assistants were unable to find out practically anything about her. Captain Cook, La Perouse and the Spaniards who discovered this island in the second half of the 18th century were not curious about ancient artifacts, they were only looking for new territories that could be developed and used as colonies. By the time European researchers finally became interested in cultural heritage other peoples, on Easter Island there are only silent witnesses of its majestic past - these are huge and breathtaking statues. Now they have been thrown off their foundations; on the edge of the crater there was only an abandoned temple and several strange wooden tablets with unknown hieroglyphs. The number of local residents decreased not only because of the incessant internecine wars. In 1862, slave traders from Peru broke into this place, they captured and took away about nine hundred people, including the last king. The prisoners were sent to extract fertilizers in the Atacama Desert. Later, another three hundred inhabitants of the island were captured and sent to Tahiti for hard labor on the plantations. When a show war began at Easter, organized by Dutroux-Bornier at the request of a French company, the remaining residents and missionaries fled. Subsequently, they moved to the Gambier Archipelago, located in a more westerly direction. Thus, in fifteen years the population of the island decreased from two and a half thousand to one hundred and eleven people! Therefore, those few people who decided to stay no longer remembered anything about the age-old customs of their forefathers.
Interesting information about the inhabitants of the island (Fig. 6). According to E.P. Blavatsky, the multi-colored skin of the local aborigines indicates that different peoples mixed on Easter Island, which include the Lemurians (the third hereditary race) and the Atlanteans (the fourth hereditary race). This information is contained in the Secret Doctrine of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, where Easter Island is mentioned as the habitat of some of the earliest generations of the third race. An unexpected volcanic eruption and uplift of the ocean floor drowned it along with all its monuments and culture. At the same time, the island remained untouched, as proof of the existence of Lemuria. There is another interpretation - the territory of Easter was occupied by several Atlanteans, who, fleeing the cataclysm that occurred in their area, settled in the remaining part of Lemuria, but not for long, since it was subsequently destroyed by a volcanic eruption and collapsing lava. Thus, it becomes clear that the ancestors of the black Lemurians, as well as the red-skinned and light-skinned Atlanteans, mixed in this territory.
A blow that destroyed the culture of an ancient people.
A large number of Scientists have put a lot of effort into reconstructing, piece by piece, the culture of the Easter population. But the resulting picture turned out to be incomplete. Researchers were lucky enough to find out that on this small piece of land, measuring only one hundred and eighteen square kilometers, there are two cultural centers:
Rano Raraku Quarry;
Orongo Shrine on the Border volcanic mountain Early Kao.
At the same time, Rano Raraku also has a volcanic crater, on the southern side of which there are ancient quarries. Huge sacred statues were subsequently carved from porous rocks in them. This mountain still bears the consequences of the terrible civil war. A large number of statues remained unfinished, in various stages of completion. For some, only the first outlines are observed, for others, to be ready, it is enough to work with a chisel several times in order to freely separate them from the rock and move them. The rest are standing or lying around and are already prepared for shipment. One of the most massive finished monuments is Rano Raraku, the top of which is twenty-two meters from the ground. At the base of the volcano there is a huge platform formed from basalt blocks; another similar platform is located below, directly on the coast. Its length is fifty meters. The lower platform once housed as many as fifteen stone idols. However, now all of them, with the exception of one, are lying on the ground. The “short-eared” race, which completely defeated the carriers of the mysterious “long-eared” culture, toppled their huge monuments, breaking the stones from the foundation.
The mass of the largest idols reaches fifty tons. Stone hammers, axes and chisels were used to carve them out, due to the fact that the local residents did not know how to make tools from metal. The most incomprehensible thing is the way in which these statues were transported from the volcano to sites located at its base, as well as at a considerable distance from it. After all, Easter Island did not have a large number of people to perform forced labor. Therefore, one has to think that the stone idols were transported with the help of small groups of local residents, using rigid cables made of reed or plant threads, wooden rollers and levers. Then they were installed vertically with a careful approach to the base of the stone embankment. But this matter did not end there. Now, on an island with virtually no vegetation cover, such monuments catch your eye everywhere. They stand, lie, unfinished or just started. Bloody civil war at the end of the 18th century. caused the downfall of these iconic sculptures. It should be noted that these statues were used not only as funerary monuments, they had a peculiar spiritual purpose, evidence of which was found on the rocky Orongo plateau, stretching at the base of Rano Kao in the southwest side of Easter Island. In that place, not far from the crater of the volcano, there are mysterious buildings without openings for windows, built from bulky stone blocks. And on the rocks near them there are many incomprehensible images minted.
Bird-man.
As ancient legends say, once a year the priests turned to God with a request to choose a new bird-man. The man chosen for this role had to organize a group of several guys and go with them to the stone dwellings and caves of Rano Kao. Once there, they waited (sometimes for months) until the island's seagulls laid their eggs on a rock several hundred feet off the coast. Then the group, floating on the water, headed towards a rock called Motunui. The first person to arrive had to immediately begin searching for the egg, then wash it and bring it safely to the island. Having done this, he, filled with pride, gave the egg to the leader of the tribe, who, from that moment on, acquired the status of a bird-man. Squeezing it in his palm, the head of the tribe danced all over South coast islands until I got to Rano Raraku. In this place the leader had to live for twelve whole months next to the stone inhabitants on Rapa Nui. He lived there completely alone, spending time in prayer and meditation. For the rest of the Rapanui people, this place was forbidden, because the chambers of a respected gentleman settled there. The main deity of this strange religion was Make-Make. Moreover, he bears no resemblance either to the creator God known to us, or to the Creator of the entire Universe. He, his comrade - the ruler of the seagulls and three deities - trustees of eggs and future descendants, demanded human sacrifices. It is possible that once upon a time cannibalism could well have existed on the island.
If you carefully study the legend about the bird-man and compare it with primordial knowledge, a completely clear logical picture emerges. Let us assume that, unlike our civilization, the ancient inhabitants of Easter Island did not have a materialistic perception, but lived with a predominance of spiritual values. Maybe because of this, some Europeans needed to destroy their culture so quickly?
Then it turns out that the election of the next bird-man (the bird is a symbol of the front essence) is nothing more than the choice of the most spiritually developed personality to perform important tasks (controlling climate, weather, seismic activity, perhaps even solving planetary problems). For this purpose, he recruited a group of young men to form a circle of power. In this case, it is logical to assume what they were doing while they were together in the cave - they were studying, intensely engaged in spiritual practices, spiritual self-development, self-discovery. When the group was ready, something like an exam or test was assigned to test their possession of certain properties related to understanding the structure of the world (symbol - the world egg). After which this bird-man began to work with the largest ahu, Rano Raraku. This is confirmed by the symbols painted on many statues; perhaps it is worth taking a closer look at them to study the signs with which the bird-man worked.
The connection between the worship of bird-man and massive stone idols is proven by the images inscribed on the backs of most of the statues. These drawings depict skeletons, ghosts, deities, but most often a bird-man. In 1722, the cult of worship of demigods and huge statues was fully promoted, but after the “short-eared” tribe landed on Rapa Nui, everything changed dramatically. Legends tell of several boats big size, on which there were about three hundred men and, most likely, the same number of women. Scientists believe that they fled the Rapaiti Islands after the outbreak of a terrible civil war or a sizzling drought.
From the AllatRa book:
Anastasia: A few more words about Easter Island. The local population retains beliefs that the ceremonial platforms (“ahu”) on which some stone statues are located are a link between the visible and invisible (otherworldly) worlds, and that the stone statues (“moai”) themselves contain the supernatural power of the ancestors. The latter, according to popular belief, is supposedly capable of regulating natural phenomena and, accordingly, leading to a favorable outcome - the prosperity of the people...
Rigden: Yes, there is nothing supernatural there. It’s just that once upon a time there lived people who knew how and why certain signs needed to be activated. If their descendants had not lost the knowledge that was given to them, then those now living on that island would have better understood themselves and the elementary connection with other worlds. Usually, for the chronicle, as a way of passing on knowledge and legends to descendants, knowledgeable people applied signs to stone sculptures, and often decorated themselves with corresponding tattoos, which had a special symbolic meaning. For ignorant people, these were drawings that meant absolutely nothing, but inspired respect and fear of someone who, in their opinion, “probably knew something special.” Later, of course, ordinary imitation began.
Anastasia: Yes, but stone heads and platforms that are located on Easter Island, there are no signs.
Rigden: Who said that these heads have no continuation? Yes, let them dig deeper in those places, then maybe they will find what is hidden from their eyes. But that's not the question. Even if people find something interesting from the signs and symbols, what will they do with it? With the dominance of material thinking and the absence of Knowledge, at best they will create a sensation in the media in order to attract more tourists to the island and earn money. That's all. Knowledge is valuable for a spiritual seeker only when it can be used and improved, and provided spiritual help to other people. (page 443)
Letter and symbols.
It must be said that the culture of the islanders did not die with them. Along with the worship of bird-man and massive idols, the "long-eared" tribe also had writing skills. Therefore, it is natural that the “short-eared” managed to take advantage of them. In the first half of the 19th century, the last of the literate Ariki remained to rule the island; he was called Ngaara, he was white-skinned and short in stature. The ruler accumulated a whole repository of symbolic tablets with hieroglyphs, and also taught at school the features of the sacred letter Rongorongo. Only a select few were allowed to study with him; for the rest of the inhabitants of the island it was a strict ban. They had no right to even touch these signs. And those who were finally allowed to learn the Rongorongo alphabet, which included several hundred characters, faced another test. First of all, they had to learn how to twist rope knots and silhouettes that matched these hieroglyphs. Similar tests are also known in many other parts of the planet.
From the AllatRa book:
“Anastasia: The importance of some signs, in my opinion, is proven by another fact of a kind of “hunt” for them. Take, for example, the story of the ancient writing of Easter Island. In that area, knowledge of signs and symbols, as well as their use in writing, disappeared quite recently, in the middle of the 19th century, when “Western Civilization” burst onto the island in the form of people who sailed on Dutch and Spanish ships. A Catholic missionary who visited there told the world about the unusual writing of the island. The inhabitants of Easter Island kept their records with special signs on wooden tablets, which were in almost every house. But, having revealed the signs of Easter Island to Europeans, this missionary and his followers at the same time did everything to destroy this writing and burn it as a pagan heresy. And what remains now of this very recently existing culture? Several hundred huge sculptures-heads the height of a multi-storey building and weighing from twenty tons, scattered throughout Easter Island, and a couple of dozen tablets - monuments of writing, which were miraculously preserved, as well as a staff and a breast ornament with writing. Moreover, the latter are scattered throughout various museums around the world. It seems that the world priests, having learned about these signs and symbols, did everything to destroy them, even despite the fact that these were already in fact pathetic remnants of once-past knowledge.”
Rigden: Well, the Archons do not sleep, they act. Well, anyone, but they understand what signs are, and even more so, what an activated sign is in work. (page 439)
Among the primitive settlers of Oceania, where established habits and traditions had not lost their true meaning, knot magic became especially widespread. You can read about this in the one hundred and thirteenth sura of the Koran. Its modern interpreters explain this fact as witchcraft. In ancient explanations, on the contrary, it is believed that the mention of knots in the Koran means sorceresses who knit magical figures, then blow on them and cast spells, which helps attract evil. Moreover, in Arabia such things were considered quite common in the pre-Islamic period. But today it is no longer possible to find either a Christian or an Arab who understands anything about “lace witchcraft.” But in those regions where traditional beliefs have not supplanted the worship of deities, as well as ancient and mystical customs, people still knit magical knots, which are often folded into quite complex configurations. This is common among such peoples as:
- Eskimos;
- Indians of North, Central and South America;
- all African peoples;
- island tribes of Oceania;
- original inhabitants of Australia and East Asia, including Japan.
In most cases, various rope figures are made for fun. But at the same time, you can often hear how the natives, stretching out a tied silhouette from a cord on their fingers, pronounce ancient words with a magical meaning. This kind of witchcraft is especially developed in isolated territories of the Melanesian archipelago, Micronesia, Polynesia, as well as among the American Indians.
At the moment, scientists are familiar with about three and a half thousand similar figures. The material for their manufacture is ordinary rope, the ends of which are tied, or a woven synthetic cord. In ancient times, tribes used animal veins, intestinal fibers, connected or twisted plant threads, and sometimes even long locks of human hair to obtain magical patterns.
Sometimes it happens that a ritual is based on the worship of spirits and mystical creatures. For example, the Eskimos are convinced of the existence of a soul in connected figures and are overly afraid of it, since, in their opinion, it can pose a danger to their lives. If someone plays with the ropes for too long or does this at an unauthorized time, then a characteristic rustling sound is heard in front of the dwelling, and at this moment the light of the lamp inside the tent begins to slowly fade away. And only those in the know understand that this is how the spirit of the connected figures approaches. At one time, he removed the entrails from his dried body and now he himself is engaged in knitting from dehydrated intestines. This process is accompanied by a sound similar to the rustling of paper.
An interesting fact is that the Navajo Indians, who settled in the northwestern United States of America, are convinced that knot tying arose in ancient times with the help of a tribe of spider people, and they subsequently taught this craft to other people. A large number of peoples knit figures from laces in order to present them as gifts to their deities. But the inhabitants of the Gilbert Islands in Micronesia are sure that such silhouettes appeared at the time of the creation of the world.
A gift that gives passage to another world.
As one belief says: “When, at the origin of life, the heavens were cut off from the earth, the demigod rose up and, while the sky gradually “risen,” he tied eleven knots one after another.” They are still familiar on the Gilbert Islands today, and Chita Maude even managed to capture ten of them.
Guiding signs.
It becomes clear why scientists to this day are unable to interpret ancient records that are more symbolic in nature than alphabetical, especially considering that they have only been partially preserved. These symbols, which have succumbed to oblivion, explain the real details and mysteries of a much older culture. Only twenty surviving messages have now been studied. They are in museums in Germany, Belgium, Chile, the USA, Russia, England, and Austria.
If we do not take into account Housen's interpretation, in which there is a decoding of approximately five hundred characters, the meaning of the hieroglyphs rongo-rongo has not yet been revealed. At the same time, they provoke interesting conclusions. Similar writing was common among the natives of northwestern India in the 4th millennium BC. Subsequently, their culture also disappeared. Some historians believe that certain components of this culture, including writing, came to Polynesia sometime in the 2nd millennium BC. Then the “long-eared” tribe spread them to the island of Rapa Nui, where they rested for many centuries, and possibly millennia. This continued until the death of knowledgeable people and priests led to the emergence of an unsolved mystery for current researchers.
Any figure woven from ropes was assigned a certain melody that had to be memorized, as well as a certain sign-drawing. These hieroglyphs were not letters or phrases, but at the same time they reflected some concepts and important thoughts. They were obtained using a volcanic glass chisel or sharpened with a shark tooth. Each line was done from the bottom up. In this case, the bottom one was drawn from left to right, and the next one was drawn vice versa. In addition, the characters were drawn upside down in each even-numbered line. Scientists gave this unique writing the name boustrophedon. However, in world literature this method is extremely rare. The mysterious writing remained unknown for a long time. Therefore, Europeans were not immediately able to find out about it. The first information about it surfaced only in 1817, when Tepano Housen began studying it in detail. He was quite amazed when he realized that only a small number of literate islanders could read the texts written on the tablets, but at the same time they retold their essence in their own words, using the signs solely as a hint. The information that emerged from the clues was learned by heart, but everyone learned it in their own way.
Here is an interesting point from Wikipedia that clearly shows how the archons, through their people, in this case the priests, uprooted the Rongorongo culture. Thomson was told about an old man named Ure Wa'e Iko. He assured that he understood most of the signs, as he took reading lessons. He was the main one of the last king from the dynasty of monarchs - Nga'ara, who had the ability to read at least one memorized text and reproduce many songs, but did not know how to write in rongo-rongo. Having learned this, Thomson began to shower the old man with various gifts and coins in the hope that he would tell what was written on the tablets. But Ure Wa'e Iko did not agree, since the Christian priests did not allow him to do this, threatening him with death. After that he ran away. However, Thomson later took photographs of the mysterious tablets and, with great effort, persuaded the old man to reproduce the text written on them. While Ure was talking, Alexander Salmon wrote down all the information under dictation, and a little time later translated it into English.
Mysterious notebook.
One day, Thor Heyerdahl decided to visit a shack on Easter Island. The owner of the hut claimed that he had a certain notebook written by his grandfather, who was aware of the secret of the kohau rongo-rongo. It displays the main hieroglyphs of ancient writing, as well as a decoding of their meaning, indicated with Latin letters. But when the scientist tried to study the notebook, Esteban immediately hid it. Shortly after this event, witnesses claim that they saw him in a small boat sailing towards the island of Tahiti. Most likely, the notebook was also with him. Since then, no one has heard anything about Esteban. Therefore, what happened to the notebook is also not clear.
Once the missionaries noticed the amazing similarity of the writing that existed on Easter Island with hieroglyphs Ancient Egypt. It turned out that one hundred and seventy-five signs of kohau rongorongo are absolutely identical with the outlines of Hindustan. And their similarity with ancient Chinese writing was established by the Austrian archaeologist Robert Teldern in 1951. American and German scientists are convinced that the writing that once existed in Polynesia was miraculously not lost and remained on Easter Island.
The unusual tradition of the natives to achieve drooping earlobes testifies to the reverence for the capabilities of acute hearing, which at one time was the main advantage of the Lemurians. They were the ones who could pick up sounds that modern man absolutely incomprehensible.
This amazing rumor was also mentioned in the book “Fragments of a Forgotten History.” It was argued that such physical characteristics arose due to the improvement of the spirit. They had access to sounds that we are not able to hear, and this was their happiness. It was in honor of such a gift that previous generations of Lemurians rewarded themselves with drooping earlobes. Thus, they wanted to be like their distant ancestors.
Creation of sculptures to the glory of the gods.
Behrens loved to talk about the rich vegetation of Easter Island, as well as the huge harvests of vegetables and fruits that were harvested every year. When he described the local inhabitants, he wrote the following: “Always cheerful, well-built, excellent runners, friendly, but extremely timid. Almost each of them, having brought gifts, hastily threw them on the ground and immediately ran away as best they could.” As for skin color, it has different shades - among them there are both black and completely white inhabitants, in addition, there are even red-skins, which gives the impression that they are sunburned. Their ears are long and often reach their shoulders. Some have small white bars inserted into their earlobes as decoration.
According to some statements, the amazing abilities of the Rapanui people are the will of the gods. They made them such that they could be responsible for that part of the world to which they were fully deployed. Residents of the island confirmed that their ancestors had long ago been engaged in the construction of the now famous monuments, as they had enormous power. However, this is not currently permitted. Having heard this version, James Cook did not want to believe it and even formulated the key mysteries of the island - how the idols could have arisen and why they do not appear now.
However, the islanders do not support this proposal and talk about bird-people, that is, deities who descended to earth, established themselves and flew back. This version is supported by images of people with wings found on the island.
Thus, Rapa Nui culture has long been exciting the minds of researchers with its unusualness and mystery. Its envoys created unique stone monuments, which testifies to the high level of development of this civilization. All the statues appeared between 1250 and 1500. Their known number to date is eight hundred and eighty-seven idols. At the same time, almost nothing is known about the inhabitants of Easter Island themselves. After all, at the time of its discovery by Europeans in the 18th century, a backward race was discovered that could not make such monuments. When the island was captured by slave traders in the 19th century, the last vestiges of civilization were buried.
In an article published in the journal Antiquity, archaeologists provided a detailed overview of the arrowheads found in large quantities in almost all parts of the island. According to the analysis, they are absolutely unsuitable for military operations. This conclusion is due to the fact that the main purpose of a good weapon is to kill the enemy, and spears from the island can only wound a person, but not mortally. Therefore, most likely, these tips served local residents as tools for cultivating land, food, and applying various tattoos to the body. There is also no evidence of large-scale and bloody wars on the island. So it can be argued that the death of the ancient culture was most likely due to a lack of resources and a transformation of the economic structure. Theoretically, the revival of civilization was very possible, but this was prevented by the arriving Europeans.
Research results.
Having read the materials of various researchers, scientists simply looking for people, I got the impression that there is interest in the island, but a catastrophic lack of true information leads the student either into the jungle of harmonious standard theories, or to the conclusion that we will never know the truth.
So what we found out:
1. There are several types of moai (statues) on the island, some recently placed on pedestals, others scattered around the island, others partially buried in the ground, some very deeply.
2. Also, these statues differ in size and appearance, apparently were made at different times.
3. At the moment, official science says that the Moai were created approximately 1200-1400 AD. And those that are in the ground up to their shoulders are simply covered with soil over time. How long does it take nature to raise the soil level by 2-3 meters or more? Somehow it doesn't add up.
4. There are several traditions on the island that vaguely resemble the actions of people who had spiritual knowledge about man and the world (whitening of skin, cult of the bird-man).
5. Despite the many mysteries and open opportunities to explore the island, local authorities do not conduct official scientific research. Moreover, such research is taboo, excavations are prohibited, and the same applies to underwater research near the island. Researchers will receive a warning from the police or intelligence services and prison. There are many examples of this. Even what Thor Heyerdahl excavated is buried. It turns out that someone is afraid that people will find out the truth that is stored in the island’s artifacts and handwriting, familiar in many similar places around the world. The work of the archons deserves detailed study so that, by understanding the methods of their influence, which have not changed for centuries, it would be possible to identify them in the everyday life of society and bring them to public review.
6. A very interesting question about writing, which was on the island and was so quickly destroyed with the arrival of Europeans; in less than a century, almost no one remembered how to read and write their traditional signs and symbols. And those who still remembered the letter fled from the researchers like fire. Apparently learned from bitter experience.
7. From the above, it becomes obvious that on the island before the arrival of Europeans there was an ancient culture that stored true knowledge and not only stored it, but also actively used it. For example, the “plasticine” technology of stone processing (when the stone for processing became plastic like plasticine), cutting down and transporting multi-ton stone statues, three-layer ahu (platforms), the bottom layer is lined with polygonal masonry, like many other megalithic structures on different continents. The very fact of creating statues and installing them along the perimeter of the island suggests that there was a need for this (at least for the local population), and as we have already found out, these were knowledgeable spiritual people, this need could be associated with the creation of certain conditions for the whole world, or some part of it. Because "the moai have the power northern winds and are responsible for the side of the world in which they look.” These could be both climatic and spiritual conditions; perhaps Rigden Djappo will deem it necessary and reveal to us the true purpose of the statues and their sacred meaning.
Thus, even now, many of the mysteries of Easter Island remain unsolved and it is possible that the answers to the questions that interest scientists have already been lost forever. However, while research is ongoing, people do not lose hope of solving the rebus created many centuries ago.
Prepared by: Alex Ermak (Kyiv, Ukraine)
It has the shape of a right triangle, at the corners of which there are inactive volcanoes, which are one of the main natural attractions. total area Easter Island is 163.6 km².
Why does Easter Island have this name?
Even without looking at the map, you can guess that the island has a name that is atypical for South America. In fact, throughout its history it had several names: the natives gave it two names at once: “Navel of the Earth” and “Eyes Looking into the Sky”, the Indians - “Rapa Nui”, and James Cook - Waihu. The first to explore Easter Island was the Dutchman Jacobson Roggeveen. He landed on the island in 1722. This happened on Easter Sunday, which gave the name to the “find”. Since then official name became “Easter Island”, and locals still consider it Rapa Nui, so you can often hear this name from Chileans.
Who lives on Easter Island?
The small island is home to only 6 thousand people. Scientists claim that there were once about 15,000 inhabitants here. When Roggeveen discovered the island, more than 10,000 thousand lived on it. The population decline was influenced by hostility between settlements, which led to wars, as well as cannibalism. But the biggest tragedy, which claimed thousands of lives, occurred when Europeans visited Easter Island. Their barbarity once and for all destroyed the civilization that had existed here for centuries. They took most of the population into slavery in Peru, many of whom died of disease. In the end, only 3,000 people remained. But life under European control became unbearable, and the population of Easter Island decreased to 178 people. This is how many natives were on the island when it joined Chile in 1888.
The indigenous inhabitants of Easter Island are considered to be the Rapanui people, or as they are now called the Easter people. Today, only 48% of them remain on the island, some of whom are mestizos with Chileans from the mainland. The remaining 52% are Spaniards.
Climate and weather
The climate on the island is tropical, with an average annual temperature of 21.8 °C. August is the coldest month of the year, and the warmest is January. Tourists should be pleased with the fact that heat is rare here, but there are often winds. It is also interesting that lakes in volcanic craters serve as a source of fresh water. One may wonder why the Chileans of Rapa Nui do not use rainwater? The answer lies in the soil, which has a very soft and loose structure, so water does not linger on the surface, but immediately seeps into the ground. Because of this, you will rarely see puddles on the island, which cannot but please lovers of hiking.
Flora and fauna
The flora and fauna of the island is very sparse; there are only 30 species of plants and almost as many animals on Rapa Nui. The island was once covered with dense forests, but droughts, rodents and the greed of people have left only small green areas of the rich fauna. Today, Easter Island is “rich” with 48 plant species. Swedish scientist Carl Scottsberg found 46 plant species on the island in 1956, but only two were added to them in half a century. Interestingly, there is no island in the world with more sparse flora than Rapa Nui.
As for animals, things are no better with them. Due to Easter Island's isolation from the continent, there is very little fauna here. Of the vertebrate animals, there are only two species of lizards and the European rat; it is believed that they came to the island completely by accident. The people themselves brought the Polynesian rat to the island, but the “indigenous” European rat supplanted it. Realizing that with such a limited fauna it was extremely difficult for people to survive on the island, in 1866 cattle were brought to Rapa Nui - sheep, pigs and horses, which helped in the development of agriculture.
The only insects on Easter Island are worms, snails and a couple of species of spiders. Europeans brought crickets, scorpions and cockroaches, which find life quite difficult here, so their population periodically decreases to a critical minimum.
Attractions
Easter Island has amazing and mysterious attractions in its arsenal. Tourists can begin to admire them already through the airplane window, since the main attraction, the stone sculptures, is visible before landing. Moreover, from the sky it is much easier to assess the scale of work of the natives who made the statues. Indigenous people, who lived here 6-9 centuries ago, believed that they contained supernatural power, so they were placed throughout the island. Scientists who have studied are confident that people have developed their skills in creating them over several centuries, since the technology is impeccable.
As the plane descends, you can see the unusual landscape of Easter Island, which is covered with many volcanic craters, similar to the surface of the Moon. Such a spectacle cannot leave you indifferent.
An attraction that can be seen even from space is the Rano Kau crater. It is located in the lower left corner of the triangular island. Once on the ground, it is worth visiting the crater, as it is an interesting sight. The crater is filled with water, on the surface of which marine plants float, open areas of water reflect the blue sky. One gets the impression that this is a model of the Earth.
Around Rapa Nui there are several coastal islands that look very picturesque. The most famous among them are Motu Nui and Motu Iti.
Interestingly, the island has preserved many buildings from the time of the Rapanui people, which are unique in their kind. The Easter dwellings were made of soft stone, but they have been well preserved to this day. The work on their restoration was successful and today tourists can see the original dwellings of the natives. It is also interesting to look at the temple Ahu Vinapu with stone sculptures.
One of the most mysterious places is Ahu Akahang a, stone column with four statues. According to legend, this is the tomb of the very first king of the island, Hoto Matua. Therefore, residents of the island often come here, especially the descendants of the Rapanui people. Tourists will probably also understand the significance of the historical figure, since the designated picnic area Anakena Beach is the place where he took his first steps on the island of Hoto Matua.
 |
 |
Tourism on Easter Island
Rich in attractions, Easter Island offers its tourists several types of recreation for every taste. The most popular is sea travel on cruise ships and yachts. The Pacific Ocean is the perfect place to be alone with water element and admire its power. Also, such walks provide an opportunity to explore the island from the outside while swimming around it. Another way to appreciate the beauty of Rapa Nui is a five-hour plane ride, which allows you to see many of the island's attractions from a low altitude.
Diving enthusiasts will have great fun diving from rocks or yachts into ocean depths. Experienced divers will help you have as much fun as possible.
Secrets of Easter Island
Rapa Nui is woven from secrets, and modern scientists believe that the civilization that existed here was several heads higher than its contemporaries. The first thing that attracted the attention of researchers on Easter Island was the caves. They played the role of quarries, and nearby there were workshops where stone sculptures were created using a unique technology. Even though they are made of soft stone, their shape has been preserved for centuries, and this is a real mystery. After all, scientists have still not been able to restore the technology of creation.
Another interesting and mysterious fact about Easter Island is that ancient maps of Rapa Nui show other territories. They are also accompanied by legends that the earth is slowly sinking under water. These maps indicate that there were many other islands and even a mainland in the Pacific Ocean, where other highly developed peoples and civilizations lived. Having studied the documents found, scientists were able to assume that the Easter Order still exists and keeps secrets that were known only to the Rapanui.
Where is Easter Island?
Easter Island is not difficult to find on the world map; it is located in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean, 3515 km from the coast. Rapa Nui and the nearest inhabited island, Pitcairn, are separated by 2,075 km. Therefore, the easiest way to get to it is to use the services of airlines. Easter Island has one that accepts flights from Santiago and Valparaiso.
