Why is Easter Island significant to Chile?
Easter Island, Spanish Isla de Pascua, also called Rapa Nui, Chilean dependency in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is the easternmost outpost of the Polynesian island world. It is famous for its giant stone statues.
Why is Easter Island Important?
Easter Island is famous for its stone statues of human figures, known as moai (meaning “statue”). The island is known to its inhabitants as Rapa Nui. The moai were probably carved to commemorate important ancestors and were made from around 1000 C.E. until the second half of the seventeenth century.
What is special about Easter Island?
The island is most famous for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, called moai, which were created by the early Rapa Nui people. In 1995, UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site, with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park.
What happened on Easter Island and why is it significant?
The collapse of Easter Island’s environment led to a collapse of its society. When early Polynesians arrived on Easter Island, they found a remote island with limited resources in the form of large palm tree forests.
Can Easter Island be reforested?
“Without trees, the soil was not protected against erosion. They couldn’t go out to sea to harpoon tuna, so Easter Island society collapsed,” Diamond says. Competition over the few resources that remained gave rise to wars. In the end, the islanders are said to have resorted to cannibalism to survive.
Why are there no trees in Easter Island?
Easter Island was covered with palm trees for over 30,000 years, but is treeless today. There is good evidence that the trees largely disappeared between 1200 and 1650. However there is evidence the Polynesian rat (Rattus exulans) was present from 900 and it seems clear that these rats caused widespread deforestation.
Does anybody live on Easter Island now?
Today, the people living on Easter Island are largely descendants of the ancient Rapa Nui (about 60%) and run the bulk of the tourism and conservation efforts on the island. Many locals living on Easter Island have livelihoods that involve the water—which makes sense!
How much does it cost to live on Easter Island?
Overview of how much an Easter Island vacation costs
| Expense | Cost (daily) |
|---|---|
| Accommodation | Double room $35,000 CLP ($54 USD)-$59,000 CLP ($90 USD)* |
| Food | $5,000 CLP-$8,000 CLP ($8 USD-$12 USD) |
| Transportation | $24,000 CLP ($37 USD) |
| Total | $66,000 CLP ($100 USD) |
How many tourists visit Easter Island each year?
According to The New York Times, an estimated 100,000 people flock to the island each year to visit its famed moai heads and to feel a bit closer to history as the island was first settled in the 12th century.
What was the peak population of Easter Island?
10,000
Why weren’t the people on Easter Island able to grow their own food survive?
Answer: Because they caused soil erosion, which made the soil inappropriate to plantations. Explanation: In addition, the rain and the sun eroded all the soil and this made it impossible for the inhabitants of Easter Island to grow their own food.