EASTER ISLAND

Easter Island, “Isla de Pascua” in Spanish
and “Rapa Nui” in Maori language, is an isolated
island in the south-eastern Pacific Ocean, renowned
for its monumental statues or Moaïs and for its
unique oceanic script, “Rongorongo”. The Chilean island’s
-coordinates are the following: 27°09′S 109°27′W / -27.15,
-109.45. It is 3,700km from continental Chile and 4,000km
from Tahiti, its nearest neighbour being the inhabited island
of Pitcairn over 2,000km to the west. Its capital is Hanga Roa; it
covers a surface of 162.5km² and had 3,304 inhabitants in the
last census in 2002. The island was discovered on Easter Sunday on
April 5th 1722 by Dutch explorer Jakob Roggeveen and had, at the
time, over 4,000 inhabitants. It was then annexed by the Spanish in 1770 before becoming a Chilean possession in 1888.

Since 1995, the island’s exceptional patrimony is protected and listed among UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites. Natural parks, sometimes under close supervision, protect the areas containing historical remnants. The Rapa Nui community guards all traces of its history and has established a parallel government alongside the official Chilean one.