Easter Island mysteries
One place I would really like to visit is Easter Island, or Rapa Nui in the langauge of the original inhabitants. The island was only first explored in 1722 by the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who was searching for Davis or David’s island.[The island’s official Spanish name, Isla de Pascua, is Spanish for “Easter Island”.
First settled by a small party of Polynesians, Easter Island is one of the youngest inhabited territories on Earth, and for most of its history it was the most isolated inhabited territory on Earth. Its inhabitants, the Rapanui, have endured famines, epidemics, civil war, slave raids and colonialism; have seen their population crash on more than one occasion, and created a cultural legacy that has brought them fame out of all proportion to their numbers. People have always wondered why the island became uninhabited so quickly – I think it was because the people there ran out of fresh water and food supplies.
The large stone statues, or moai, for which Easter Island is world famous were carved during a relatively short and intense burst of creative and productive megalithic activity. 887 monolithic stone statues have been inventoried on the island and in museum collections. Although often identified as “Easter Island Heads”, the statues actually are heads and complete torsos. Some upright moai, however, have become buried up to their necks by shifting soils. It must have been a brilliant sight for that first Dutch explorer when he arrived at the island and saw them lined up along the shores. No-one yet has really explained why the people built them at all.
I wonder if the mystery will ever be solved.
cool.i wonderbb if aliens made them.(think think think)