Easter Island, Chile

Easter Island is a Chilean island and a Chilean special territory in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of Oceania's Polynesian Triangle. The island is well known for the nearly 1,000 moai (monumental statues) that were built by the early Rapa Nui people. Easter Island was designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1995, with much of the island preserved inside Rapa Nui National Park.

Easter Island's famed giant stone statues, known as moai, were sculpted between 1100 and 1680 CE (rectified radio-carbon dates). On the island and in museum collections, there are a total of 887 monolithic stone statues. The statues feature torsos, most of which finish at the top of the thighs; a limited number are entire figures kneeling on bent knees with their hands over their tummies, despite the fact that they are commonly referred to as "Easter Island heads." Shifting soils have buried several upright moai up to their necks.

Easter Island is one of the world's most isolated inhabited islands. Pitcairn Island, 2,075 kilometers (1,289 miles) distant, is the closest inhabited land (approximately 50 persons in 2013); Rikitea, on the island of Mangareva, is 2,606 kilometers (1,619 miles) away; and the nearest continental point is in central Chile, 3,512 kilometers (2,182 miles).

Location: Isla de Pascua, Valparaíso, Chile