Does Easter Island have a capital?
Easter Island is triangular in shape about 63 square miles and has a population of 4,000 which live in the capital of Hanga Roa Easter is made up of three volcanoes: Poike, Rano Kau and Terevaka The island is famous for its numerous moai, the stone statues located along the coastlines
What country does Easter Island belong to?
In 1888, Chile annexed Easter Island, leasing much of the land for sheep raising The Chilean government appointed a civilian governor for Easter Island in 1965, and the island’s residents became full Chilean citizens
What is the currency of Easter Island?
The official currency on Easter Island is the Chilean Peso (CLP; approximately 645 pesos to one US dollar)
Where is Easter Island located?
Easter Island is a small island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean that belongs to Chile The island is one of the most isolated places in the world, at the southeastern most point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania
Who owns Easter Island?
Chile annexed Easter Island in 1888 In 1966, the Rapa Nui were granted Chilean citizenship In 2007 the island gained the constitutional status of “special territory” (Spanish: territorio especial) Administratively, it belongs to the Valparaíso Region, constituting a single commune of the Province Isla de Pascua
What is Isla de Pascua?
Easter Island, Spanish Isla de Pascua, also called Rapa Nui, Chilean dependency in the eastern Pacific Ocean It is the easternmost outpost of the Polynesian island world It is famous for its giant stone statues
Does anyone live on Easter Island today?
Today, the people living on Easter Island are largely descendants of the ancient Rapa Nui (about 60%) and run the bulk of the tourism and conservation efforts on the island Many locals living on Easter Island have livelihoods that involve the water—which makes sense!
Why are there no trees on Easter Island?
When it rains on the island, also known as Rapa Nui, the water rapidly drains through the porous volcanic soil, leaving the grass dry again That’s one reason why the island at the end of the world has stayed almost entirely bare, with no trees or shrubs
Can I go to Easter Island?
Top Easter Island travel tip: The island and its people are notoriously closed to foreigners and I certainly found it difficult to get residents to talk to me However, most guides are very welcoming and really happy to talk if you show an interest in the Rapa Nui culture
Are there snakes on Easter Island?
There are not much variety of Easter Island animals due to its extreme isolation There is no native mammal in its terrestrial wildlife There are no known species of snakes on the island
Are there still rats on Easter Island?
Anthropologist Terry Hunt and colleagues say that introduced Polynesian rats may have caused the deforestation of the island’s 16 million palm trees which were key to sustaining Easter’s human population Virtually no animals besides rats inhabited the island and the natives lacked sea-worthy boats
Can you buy land on Easter Island?
Several thousand Rapanui still live on Easter Island, but they say outsiders now control the island, including its lucrative tourism industry By law, only Rapanui can own land on Easter Island
Are there houses on Easter Island?
Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, as it’s called by the locals, is actually a territory of Chile, but many of the people who live there are of Polynesian descent Because of the mild, semi-tropical climate on Rapa Nui, many of the homes are open to the outside and have decks or covered patios
What language do they speak on Easter Island?
Rapa Nui Rapa Nui Language family Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Polynesian Eastern Polynesian Rapa Nui Writing system Latin script, possibly formerly rongorongo Official status Official language in Easter Island (Chile)
Can you stay on Easter Island?
The best places to stay on Easter island provide a perfect base for enjoying and exploring this most unusual of locations and many are situated in and around Hanga Roa from where there is easy access to all its best bits Easter island is not as inaccessible as you may think, with regular flights from Chile and Tahiti
Was there cannibalism on Easter Island?
With no trees to anchor the soil, fertile land eroded away resulting in poor crop yields, while a lack of wood meant islanders couldn’t build canoes to access fish or move statues This led to internecine warfare and, ultimately, cannibalism
What happened to the birds on Easter Island?
Soon land birds went extinct and migratory bird numbers were severely reduced, thus spelling an end for Easter Island’s forests Already under intense pressure by the human population for firewood and building material, the forests lost their animal pollinators and seed dispersers with the disappearance of the birds
Do the Easter Island heads have bodies?
As a part of the Easter Island Statue Project, the team excavated two moai and discovered that each one had a body, proving, as the team excitedly explained in a letter, “that the ‘heads’ on the slope here are, in fact, full but incomplete statues”May 23, 2019
Is Stonehenge on Easter Island?
Stonehenge is located near Salisbury, Wiltshire, England within the Salisbury Plain — not the Pacific Ocean’s Easter Island
Who discovered Easter Island first?
Ever since the Dutchman Jacob Roggeveen, the first European known to have reached Easter Island, arrived in 1722, scholars have debated the origins of the isolated population he found there
Does Easter Island have trees?
Easter Island was covered with palm trees for over 30,000 years, but is treeless today There is good evidence that the trees largely disappeared between 1200 and 1650
How old are the stone heads on Easter Island?
This is a question of much debate among scholars in the field, although there is a consensus they were built sometime between 400 and 1500 AD That means all the statues are least 500 years old, if not much more
Does Easter Island have an airport?
Mataveri International Airport or Isla de Pascua Airport (IATA: IPC, ICAO: SCIP) is at Hanga Roa on Rapa Nui / (Easter Island) (Isla de Pascua in Spanish) The airport is the main point of entry for visitors to Easter Island
Why are the stone heads on Easter Island?
What purpose do the statues of Easter island Have? Archaeologists suggest that the statues were a representation of the Polynesian people’s ancestors The Moai statues face away from the sea and towards the villages, by way of watching over the people