Easter Island, now called Rapa Nui, is one of the most remote islands in the world. It is in the southeast Pacific Ocean more than 2,000 miles from a mainland.
Since 1888, Easter Island has been part of Chile. If you don't count tourists, close to 8,000 people live on Easter Island. About half of them can trace their roots back to the original Polynesian Rapa Nui people.
How did Easter Island get its name?
In the early 1700s, a Dutch explorer, Jacob Roggeveen, was sailing the South Pacific. On Easter Sunday, April 5, 1722, he discovered the island. In honor of the day, he named the island "Paasch Eyland", Dutch for Easter Island. The island's Spanish name, Isla de Pascua, also means Easter Island.
Later in the 1800s, Easter Island was given a Polynesian name, Rapa Nui, in honor of the original people.
Easter Island is famous not for bunnies or eggs, but for its 887 large stone statues called "moai" (pronounced "mo-eye"). These statues were built by the early Rapa Nui people between the years 1100 and 1680. How these large heavy statues were moved to their places around the island is a mystery.
Many tourists visit the Easter Island/Rapa Nui statues. In 1994, the island was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. However, the future does not look good for the moai statues. Climate change is leading to rising sea levels and soil erosion, which could destroy the statues along the coast.
Source: wordville.com/ReadingComp/ES6EasterIsland.html Easter Island
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