The Most Secluded Island in the World

It was nonrandom that this volcanic island, located in the southern part of the Pacific ocean got such a name: those were the Dutchmen who landed here on the first day of the Easter week, in 1722.

The Easter Island, or Rapa Nui how local people call it, was discovered by the Dutch seaman Jacob Roggeveen 280 years ago and is by right named the most secluded island on our planer – the closest neighbours live 2000 km away from here. To get to Chile or Tahiti, you will have to overpass almost 4000 km while the distance between the island and the Antarctic is 6000 km. It is no wonder that there are no fences or gates here, and the Chile patrol ship comes here only twice a year: if a criminal gets to this place, he’s got nowhere to run.

This triangular-shaped island covers a 171 sq.meters area. There is not a single river or a stream here, the rain-water is accumulated in three small lakes that were formed in volcano craters.

The Easter Island is located in subtropical area, so the “tourist season” lasts here all year round. The warmest and the driest season is November to April – however, the island doesn’t have a raining season. Tourists who are going to the Easter island are always warned of rather a dangerous sun. But it is not because of the holes in the ozone layer, as one might think – the point is, the air is “too” clean, which results in such effects.

Thanks to its unique geographic location, complete seclusion and a kind of isolation from the rest of the world, the Easter Island is still surrounded with mysteries. One of these is the origin of the local people, which was partly solved by an archaeologists and a traveler Thor Heyerdahl, who swam over the Pacific ocean on a raft and proved that people could get here from South America.

Another island’s main riddle is absolutely unique giant statues that local people call moai. Some of them are 21 meters high and weigh up to 200 tons. Statues are really weird looking – they’ve got huge heads with big chins, long ears and no legs. Ancient people believed that moai guarded them and the whole earth from the evil spirits. Of course, the main question that researchers faced was how these huge colossi were moved around the island. Having done special research works, they found out that those statues have a low centre of gravity and can easily be installed by 15 men with the help of ropes. The installation of one statue takes about 2 months and the work forces of 90 people.

In 14th-17th centuries, during the period of the islands’ prosperity, there were about 20.000 people living here, who were mostly fishers and farmers. After the island was discovered by the Europeans, the number of people living here got greatly lower: some of them were killed, others were sold to slavery. After the island was annexed by Chile in 1888 almost nothing has changed in the way local people lived here. Only recently, in 1966, the island’s population got some rights. The building of an airport and rare tourists started to bring some profits. They do say that the island is still uninhabited, though, only the stone statues remind of some sort of civilization.

Nowadays you can get to the island from Chile, where special tours are organized to the Easter Island. The tours are rather expensive ones, but its hard to deny that the Easter island is one of the most desired tourist destinations.