Easter
Island Easter
Island is a destination that seems to inhabit our subconscious. The image
of those great stone moai with their backs to the vast Pacific strikes
some chord within us, recalls some ancient, creative urge. 
Easter
Island
This is the world's most isolated bit of land, a tiny pinprick in the
great pacific, a mound of consolidated lava and ash from three submarine
volcanoes. The natives call their island Rapa Nui or Te Pito o Te Henua,
'the navel of the earth.'
Linguistic and cultural comparisons indicate that the first humans on
Easter Island arrived from the west, most likely from the Marquesas islands
or Mangareva, as part of a greater migratory process which spread Polynesian
culture throughout the south Pacific. However, the twelve centuries which
elapsed between the arrival of the first intrepid 'settlers' near 500
AD and the 'discovery' of the island in 1722 by the Dutch admiral Jacob
Roggeveen are among the world's great mysteries.
European sailors visiting the island found that the natives could not
explain the construction and transport of the great moai megaliths, the
largest of which exceeds sixty feet in height. Nor could they decipher
the rongo rongo tablets whose hieroglyphic script appears to be a forgotten
form of written language. Somewhere in the past - a past which seems to
have seesawed from ancestor worship, monument building and population
growth, to deforestation and food shortages, feuding and in some cases
even cannibalism - the old knowledge had been lost. It is the mystery
of these disappeared artisans, and the awesome presence of their works,
which continues to draw scientists and seekers from across the globe.
Today, Rapa Nui National Park protects most of the island's archaeological
sites, and the native todomiro forests that once graced the island are
being replanted. Opportunities for hiking, mountain biking, and horseback
riding abound on the island, while a rich marine ecosystem of corals and
colorful tropical fish makes Easter Island a prime destination for scuba
diving and snorkeling.
Information provides by http://www.visitchile.org