Geography: Located over 2,000 miles from the nearest population, in the South Pacific between Chile and Tahiti, Easter Island is one of the most isolated inhabited islands in the world. Easter Island is best known for the giant stone monoliths, known as Moai, that dot the coastline.
Distance from Pittsburgh: 8,111km or 5,040miles
Terrain: Easter Island is a small, hilly, now treeless island. Lava tubes and pounding waves have created hundreds of sea caves and a treacherous coastline. Volcanic cones are found at each point of the island. The largest, Rano Kau is easily visible from space.
Highest Point: Terevaka (a volcanic cone) 11,674ft
What You Must See: Easter Island's most famous features are its enormous stone statues called moai, at least 288 of which once stood upon massive stone platforms called ahu. There are some 250 of these ahu platforms spaced approximately one half mile apart and creating an almost unbroken line around the perimeter of the island. Another 600 moai statues, in various stages of completion, are scattered around the island, either in quarries or along ancient roads between the quarries and the coastal areas where the statues were most often erected.
Distance from Pittsburgh: 8,111km or 5,040miles
Terrain: Easter Island is a small, hilly, now treeless island. Lava tubes and pounding waves have created hundreds of sea caves and a treacherous coastline. Volcanic cones are found at each point of the island. The largest, Rano Kau is easily visible from space.
Highest Point: Terevaka (a volcanic cone) 11,674ft
What You Must See: Easter Island's most famous features are its enormous stone statues called moai, at least 288 of which once stood upon massive stone platforms called ahu. There are some 250 of these ahu platforms spaced approximately one half mile apart and creating an almost unbroken line around the perimeter of the island. Another 600 moai statues, in various stages of completion, are scattered around the island, either in quarries or along ancient roads between the quarries and the coastal areas where the statues were most often erected.
Historical Fact: The early settlers called the island "Te Pito O Te Henua" (Navel of The World). Admiral Roggeveen, who came upon the island on Easter Day in 1722, named it Easter Island. Today, the land, people and language are all referred to locally as Rapa Nui.
Science Fact: Easter Island is sixty-three square miles in size and has three extinct volcanoes, the tallest rising to 1674 feet. Technically speaking, the triangular island is a single massive volcano rising over ten thousand feet from the Pacific Ocean floor.
Interesting Fact: Nearly all the moai are carved from the tough stone of the Rano Raraku volcano. The average statue is 14 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs 14 tons. Some moai were as large as 33 feet and weighed more than 80 tons (one statue only partially quarried from the bedrock was 65 feet long and would have weighed an estimated 270 tons). Depending upon the size of the statues, it has been estimated that between 50 and 150 people were needed to drag them across the countryside on sleds and rollers made from the island's trees.
Fun Fact: Scholars are unable to explain the meaning and use of the moai statues. It is assumed that their carving and erection derived from an idea rooted in similar practices found elsewhere in Polynesia but which evolved in a unique way on Easter Island. The statues may have been used for religious purposes. Carved stone and wooden objects in ancient Polynesian religions, when properly fashioned and ritually prepared, were believed to have a magical spiritual essence called mana. Archaeologists have suggested that the moai statues of Easter Island were created with a similar purpose in mind.
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