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Easter Island

Anakena Beach Tapati Festival Flower - Easter Island Rano Raraku Ahu Akivi Sunset at Tahai

Easter Island, “Isla de Pascua” in Spanish and “Rapa Nui” in Maori language, is an isolated island in the south-eastern Pacific Ocean, famous for its monumental statues or Moaïs and for its unique oceanic script, the “Rongorongo”. It is located at 3,700 km from continental Chile and 4,000 km from Tahiti, its nearest neighbour being the inhabited island of Pitcairn at around 2,000 km to the west. Its capital is Hanga Roa; it covers a surface of 162.5 km² and had 5,800 inhabitants in the last census in 2012. The island was discovered on the Easter Sunday of April 5th, 1722 by Dutch explorer Jakob Roggeveen and had, at the time, over 4,000 inhabitants. It was then annexed by the Spanish government in 1770, before becoming a Chilean possession in 1888. Since 1995, the island’s exceptional cultural and architectural heritage has been 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 is trying to preserve every single trace of its history and has established a parallel government alongside the official Chilean one. Video clip Easter Island

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