Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Rapa Nui, better known as Easter Island is the world's most remote inhabited island. It lies some 3,700 km (2,294 miles) west of Chile and it is actually more Polynesian than Chilean. It is not known how the ancestors of the Pacific Islanders on Rapa Nui ever got there. Evidence suggest they arrived on the island around the year 1200.

The inhabitant created a thriving culture, but land clearing and the introduction of the Polynesian rat led to gradual deforestation. When Europeans first arrived in 1722, the island's population is thought to have been about 2,000, but by 1877 there were only 111 natives left.

There are some 1,000 stunning statues, known as moai, mostly situated on the island's coast. It is a mystery as how the statues were designed and sculpted.

Another mystery is how they ever got the statues from the inland quarries, where the hard volcanic basalt, of which they were made is located, to the coast.

Chile annexed the island in 1888 after the War of the Pacific and it is home to a population of around 2,000 people. About half of them live in the largest town on Rapa Nui, Hanga Roa. Three quarters of the islands inhabitants are of Polynesian descent, while the rest comes from the Chilean mainland. Almost the entire island of Rapa Nui is declared a national park. In 1995 it was inscribed in the UNESCO list of world heritage sites

Accommodation is available in Hanga Roa. Many buildings in the town used to be adorned with wooden tablets known as rongorongo, but nowadays the tablets can only be seen in museums.

Easter Island is one of the world's most remote inhabited islands. It is some 3,500 km (2,180 mi) from mainland Chile.