Easter Island |
The island has beaches, archaeological zones, volcanoes, and an exuberant culture to offer visitors.
With a warm and pleasant climate year-round, Easter Island is famous around the world for its Moais, ancient ceremonial sculptures of stone with human forms, vestiges of a culture whose mysteries still remain unsolved.
Some of the highlights on Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, are its beaches such as Anakena , with tepid waters and white sand. Adding to these are the natural spots of the island, green meadows, majestic volcanoes, and nearby, the majority of the ceremonial centers and archaeological vestiges of the island, protected by the Rapa Nui National Park .
Easter Island or "Rapa Nui", owes its origin to three volcanoes which erupted some three million years ago: Poike, Rano Kau and Maunga Terevaka. On the island there are also more than 70 craters which, combined with the volcanoes, give shape to this island, exhibiting low, rolling hills and beautiful extinct volcanoes.
There are two strong theories concerning the original Easter Island settlers. One theory is that its first inhabitants came from Polynesia and arrived on the island around 4 A.D. The other theory suggests a South American origin, an idea which came about due to the similarities found between Andean and Pascuen construction.
From its very settlement, the culture of the island developed isolated from the rest of the world until it was discovered in 1722 by a Dutchman, on the day of Resurrection. During its isolation, the habitants of Rapa Nui developed a complex culture which in many aspects continues to be shrouded in mystery.
Inside the boundaries of the park you can find most of the interesting archeological sites of the island: the ceremonial village of Orongo, the Rano Raraku quarries, the Rano Kau volcano crater, the Puna Pau or the Ahu Akivi quarry, to mention a few.
NATURAL HERITAGE
Rapa Nui is a triangular-shaped island of volcanic origin, created by the action of three main volcanoes: Terevaka, Katiki and Rano Kau. The island is actually the peak of an enormous submerged mountain with a circumference at its base of 200 kilometers (125 mi) and around 4000 meters (13,120 ft) in altitude.
The topography of the island is undulating, with smooth slopes and numerous volcanic cones, distributed across its surface.
On the island there is no surface running water and the underground water sources are found at a medium depth. The only three surface water deposits are on the Rano Aroi, Rano Kau and Rano Raraku.
Flora and vegetation on the island is scarce. In the prairies you can find Giant Rat's Tail Grass and koda millett, accompanied by shrubs of tropical guava, wild sunhemp, and bush lupine. As well as this, there are some forests where the predominant varieties are Eucalyptus, Mellia azedarach and silk trees.
The native species are concentrated in some places, one of these is the crater of the Rano Kau volcano where you can see mako'l, mahute, ngaoho, hau hau and some ferns. In some places of Hanga Roa and in the vicinity of CONAF there are toromiro, an endemic species which CONAF is trying to reintroduce.
HISTORICAL OR CULTURAL HERITAGE
Most of the sculptural and architectural manifestations of Rapa Nui are within the park's boundaries, for example, the statues (Moai), ceremonial altars (ahu) and manifestations of rupestrian art, etc. All this wealth constitutes a unique archeological heritage which turn this park into an extraordinary outdoor museum.
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