wulkany: Easter Island

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

Easter Island (Spanish: Isla de Pascua, [ˈisla ðe ˈpaskwa]; Rapa Nui: Rapa Nui, [ˈɾapa ˈnu.i]) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned 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. Easter Island is also the only territory in Polynesia where Spanish is an official language. Experts differ on when the island's Polynesian inhabitants first reached the island. While many researcher…

Evidence: 45 • authority: 72

Rapa Nui National Park (Spanish: Parque nacional Rapa Nui) is a national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located on Easter Island, Chile. Rapa Nui is the Polynesian name of Easter Island; its Spanish name is Isla de Pascua. The island is located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern extremity of the Polynesian Triangle. The island was taken over by Chile in 1888. Its fame and World Heritage status arise from the 887 extant stone statues known by the name "moai", whose creation is attributed to the early Rapa Nui people who inhabited the island starting between 300 and 1200 AD. Much of the island has been declared as Rapa Nui National Park which, on 22 March 1996, UNESCO…

Evidence: 45 • authority: 72

Moai or moꞌai ( MOH-eye; Rapa Nui: moꞌai, lit. 'statue', pronounced [ˈmoʔai]; Spanish: moái) are monolithic human figures carved from stone by the Rapa Nui people, on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in eastern Polynesia between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the island's perimeter. Almost all moai have overly large heads, which account for three-eighths of the size of the whole statue. They also have no legs. The moai are chiefly the living faces (aringa ora) of deified ancestors (aringa ora ata tepuna). Although the stone moai are the most famous, the Rapa Nu…

Evidence: 43 • authority: 72

The Rapa Nui (Rapa Nui: [ˈɾapa ˈnu.i], Spanish: [ˈrapa ˈnu.i]) are the Indigenous Polynesian peoples of Easter Island. The easternmost Polynesian culture, the descendants of the original people of Easter Island make up about 60% of the current Easter Island population and have a significant portion of their population residing in mainland Chile. They speak Rapa Nui and Chilean Spanish. At the 2017 census there were 7,750 island inhabitants—almost all living in the village of Hanga Roa on the sheltered west coast. As of 2011, Rapa Nui's main source of income derived from tourism, which focuses on the giant sculptures called moai. Over the past decade, Rapa Nui activists have been fighting fo…

Evidence: 29 • authority: 80

Evidence: 29 • authority: 72

Evidence: 21 • authority: 72

Rapa-Nui is a 1994 American historical action-adventure film directed by Kevin Reynolds and co-produced by Kevin Costner, who starred in Reynolds's previous film, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). The plot is based on Rapa Nui legends of Easter Island, Chile, in particular the race for the sooty tern's egg in the Birdman Cult. The historic details of this film are questionable, and though the central theme—the destruction of the island's irreplaceable forests—is well-authenticated, the idea that this led to the destruction of the Rapa Nui is questionable. The struggle in the story is derived from the legend of the Hanau epe.