Easter Island is an unusual pearl in the middle of the ocean

(Patria) - Easter Island is one of the peculiar places on the planet that has captured attention since it was discovered quite by accident on April 5, Easter Sunday 1722.

This piece of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is located nearly 4,000 kilometers from the coast of South America and 2,000 kilometers from the nearest Polynesian islands, reports Punkufer.

Chilean Easter Island, made of volcanic rock, is also called Rapa Nui, and is best known for its mysterious stone statues called moai.

The island was discovered quite by accident by Dutch Admiral Jacob Roggeveen, who wrote in his ship's log that during the encounter, the natives were less surprised than his crew, and they showed great interest in the ships, as if they had never seen anything like them.

The crew, on the other hand, were surprised by the large statues facing the sea, before which the natives would prostrate themselves at dawn, but they could not explain anything about their meaning or origin.

The encounter did not go peacefully, so the Dutch admiral sailed away with his crew, and forty years later, Spanish ships landed there.

Commander Don Felipe González y Haeda annexed the island in the name of the Spanish king and drew a map of the island.



In 1774, English navigator James Cook landed on the island to verify that all the fame surrounding the statues was true. He confirmed that this windy, treeless island was inhabited by modest people living in huts made of brushwood.

He was puzzled by the fact that the statues were toppled, and since they were firmly embedded in the ground, he could not find a plausible reason how this could have happened.

The monolithic statues scattered across the entire island have baffled experts for centuries. They simply cannot understand why and how the islanders erected these colossal creations. The results of new research indicate that the moai were a guide to drinking water.

According to one theory, the first settlers arrived on the island around 500 AD from the Marquesas Islands, which are about 3,850 kilometers away. From their Polynesian roots, they eventually developed an independent culture.

It is believed that the islanders eventually cut down almost all the trees, putting Easter Island at risk of erosion that could wipe it off the map. To save the island, experts warn that thousands of trees need to be planted.

Although tourists from all over the world come to the island to see the mysterious statues, Easter Island also offers other attractions, such as the ancient village of Orongo in the southwest or the beautiful lake in the crater of the Rano Kau volcano.

Easter Island is also home to the most remote airport in the world. Considering the distance of world airports, Mataveri or Pascua Airport on Easter Island is convincingly in "quarantine." It is located in the capital Hanga Roa, and is 3,759 kilometers from the nearest airport.

Flights to Easter Island go from Chile or Tahiti, taking less than six hours. While some travelers would gladly stay on the island forever, others say that four to five days are quite enough to explore this unusual pearl in the middle of the ocean.