Destination guide: Easter Island, Chile
Easter Island is known around the world for the strange statues, called Moai, that line its shores. When you visit the island you will see them standing upon the coastline looking in from the ocean. No one knows how they got there, or what purpose they serve – that's part of the mystery that keeps Easter Island filled with eager visitors.
On Easter Island you will discover amazing archaeological history and more. The island has strange stone formations, cave paintings, carvings, and much more.
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Easter Island - Things to do
Sights
Iglesia Hanga Roa
The unmissable Iglesia Hanga Roa, the island's Catholic church, is well worth a visit for its spectacular wood carvings which integrate Christian doctrine with Rapanui tradition. It also makes a colorful scene on Sunday mornings, bursting at the seams with a devout congregation neatly dressed and belting out rousing himene (hymns).
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Sub-Type: Religious, Spiritual |
Museo Antropológico Sebastián Englert
This well-organized anthropological museum makes for a perfect introduction to Easter Island's history and culture. It displays replica Rongo-Rongo tablets, basalt fishhooks, obsidian spearheads, a moai head with reconstructed eye fragments, sketches of elliptical houses, circular beehive-shaped huts and the ceremonial houses at Orongo.
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Sub-Type: Museum |
Parque Nacional Rapa Nui
Since 1935, most of Rapa Nui's land and all of its archaeological sites have been a national park administered by Conaf. The park teems with caves, ahu (ceremonial platforms), fallen moai (statues), village structures and petroglyphs. Spending the extra cash on a guided tour, or on an islander who can explain what you are seeing, is a very worthy investment. Respecting these sites is essential - avoid walking on the ahu (revered by locals as burial sites) or removing/relocating rocks from archaeological structures. There are ranger information stations at Orongo, Anakena and Rano Raraku.
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Sub-Type: Outdoors |
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