Easter Island
(historical background)

Uniqueness easter islands manifests itself in an ambiguous opinion about him. That is, on the one hand, people know about this place everything, on the other hand, is nothing at the same time. Its mysterious stone statues are still silent witnesses of an ancient and unknown culture. But who and how could have created these monumental sculptures from the rocks?

A bit of geography. Easter Island is located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, between Chile and Tahiti (Figure 1). Local natives christened him - Rapanui or Rapa Nui (Rapa Nui). Easter is the most remote island in the world. The distance to the nearby piece of land in the west is two thousand ninety-two kilometers, and in the east - two thousand nine hundred and seventy-one kilometers. It is formed in the shape of a triangle, with extinct volcanoes on each edge.

The area of ​​the island is about one hundred and sixty square kilometers. Easter Island recognized highest point above the ocean level. It is located on a huge hill, which was named the East Pacific Upland. In view of this, Thor Heyerdahl wrote that the nearest land that the locals see is the Moon.

The capital of the island, as well as its the only city, is the city of Anga Roa. The island has its own flag (Fig. 3) and its own coat of arms (Fig. 4).

Interestingly, Easter Island has / had several names: Vaihu, Mata-ki-te-Ragi, San Carlos Island, Rapanui, Teapi, Tekaouhangoaru, Te-Pito-o-te-Henua, Hititeairagi, Easter Island.

Some legends claim that Easter Island was once part of one big country(many consider it to be the surviving part of Atlantis). This looks quite plausible, since today at Easter a lot of evidence has been found confirming these legends: the island has roads leading directly to the ocean, a large number of underground tunnels have been dug, originating in local caves and paving the way in an unknown direction, as well as others not less significant information and surprising finds.

Interesting data on underwater exploration of the ocean floor near Easter Island is provided by the Australian Howard Tirloren, who arrived here with Cousteau. He said that having arrived here in 1978, they studied the bottom around the island in sufficient detail. Anyone who has gone down in the bathyscaphe will confirm that the mountains under water, even at shallow depths, have a rather unusual appearance: some of them even had holes that resembled connectors for windows. And once Jacques-Yves Cousteau found one unfamiliar deep-sea depression in the vicinity, where after he dived for three more days. When he returned, he wanted to explore this depression even more scrupulously. Cousteau did not manage to see anything in full, but according to him, at the bottom you can see the silhouettes of the walls, forming something like a site big city... However, because of the people serving in the DINA political police, which was supervised by Pinochet himself, nothing came of it. According to Tirloren, they were forced to endorse the documents on non-disclosure of information, and also demanded to stop the research, so all work was stopped. But what is unusual about this depression? Why the Chilean state security is so afraid of scientists remains a mystery. After the Pinochet regime, this issue was raised again, but to no avail. Thus, this fact does not exclude the assumption that a significant part of Easter Island sank during some kind of catastrophe.

In 1973–1977, several American oceanographers studied oceanic trenches near Easter Island, namely, near the Sala-i-Gomez ridge. As a result, they discovered sixty-five underwater peaks and agreed with the hypothesis of the existence of an unknown archipelago, which was in this area tens of thousands of years ago, and then sank into the water. But all subsequent research for no good reason was frozen at the request of the Chilean government. The “Island of Mysteries” still does not provide an opportunity to unravel its mystery.

The obtained geophysical information asserts that the coast of Southeast Asia is slowly sinking into the ocean. Maybe this subsidence once happened faster and at one moment, like Atlantis, it went deep into the depths of the ocean, including Pacifida with its huge population and distinctive culture, traces of which are still found on Easter Island? And the various tablets with inscriptions and monuments of art are nothing more than surviving proof of an ancient disappeared civilization? Indeed, according to the testimony of the first inhabitant of Easter Island, Eiro, in all the buildings there are wooden planks or sticks containing some hieroglyphs and symbols. Basically, these are images of unknown animals, which the natives continue to paint with stones to this day. Each image has its own designation; but in view of the fact that they make such products on very rare occasions, this suggests that these hieroglyphs are only the remnants of ancient writing. That is, the natives are only trying to follow old customs, without trying to find any meaning in this.

Macmillan Brown, in his research, even tried to find out the approximate date of the death of the Pacifida. In his opinion, this phenomenon could have occurred in the interval between 1687, when the English sailor Davis examined a large ledge in the area of ​​Easter Island, and 1722, when Admiral Roggeven did not find anything in this place except for a small island. The cataclysm that happened was evidenced not only by the unexpectedly stopped work in the quarries on Rano Raraku. In many areas of Easter Island, spacious roads are paved that end in the ocean. Does this mean that these paths end deep under water? Is it possible to find new evidence of a lost culture on the seabed?

There is one but that completely destroys this hypothesis, and this is a matter of chronology. At what point did the land in the Pacific Ocean begin to sink? Three hundred years ago, or three thousand, or perhaps even three hundred thousand? Or is this figure in the millions? Geological and geophysical data indicate that the deepening of the land and the collapse of the Pacifida happened just in the ancient period. The fauna and flora of islands like the Galapagos New Zealand, Fiji, were formed from the mainland, but many centuries ago they were part of one huge continent. This led to the presence of fossils here, which have long disappeared and are not found anywhere else on the globe. Likewise, at one point the Australian continent broke away from Asia. Land immersion at the location of Easter Island has not occurred since that ancient period.

Geological and oceanographic surveys near Easter by Chubb confirmed the fact that it did not sink a millimeter, and at the time the monuments were erected, the coastline was as stable as it is today. This argument was repeated by the Swedish expedition, which established the geological stability of the island, which lasts for at least a million years.

Studying the issue of the emergence of the island itself, the author got the impression that many scientists do not set a goal to understand or reveal the truth, but pursue the goal of defending their own point of view, to prove what is beneficial to them. Or, moving in an absolutely impartial search, they come across postulates that are this moment imposed on society, as official, but at the slightest check they burst at the seams. This forces them to deploy their research from a straight path to the thorny direct official wilds. It is not difficult to draw attention to the fact that most researchers evaluate the available artifacts only from the point of view of the dominance of matter over spirituality, and nothing else.

In the process of studying the topic, a number of questions arose. Why do scientists, faced with inexplicable archaeological artifacts and at the same time with the same incomprehensible behavior of the authorities, which openly prohibit research, do not sound the alarm in every possible way and do not try to convey the obvious to the public? Why don't they build hypotheses in which there would be a place for all findings and facts, and not just convenient or understandable ones? How can one sometimes come up with theories so that they do not seem crude to the public? Are they really not interested in learning about the past of their planet, or simply do not have free time due to everyday problems? Who really needed to build multi-ton statues on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean, arrange them around the perimeter of the island facing the ocean, paint with ornaments and patterns? What was it about their writing that when the first Europeans who visited the island saw it, they began to hastily eradicate it from the local population, so much so that after forty years almost none of the Rapanui could not only write, but also read their household signs? One can argue that it was by chance and in general it was this 18th century for a very long time, well, but why are not excavations and research being carried out at the state level now? Why, if you now go to the statue behind the fence, the person will face prison? And why has UNESCO banned excavation and exploration of the underground part of the statues? Another curious fact is that almost all modern researchers of the original culture of Easter Island claim that it is impossible to find out its true meaning or decipher the writing, and everything that is read is ordinary everyday texts.

A people exterminated in half a century.

Fifty years later, in 1722, the Englishman James Cook and the Frenchman La Perouse visited Easter Island. Since then, the situation has changed a lot. Many plains were abandoned. Once the chubby inhabitants lived in poverty, and the statues filled with grandeur were almost all toppled and lay on the ground. The ancient cult was erased from memory. From the famous race of "long-eared" there are only a few representatives, most likely, their death is associated with rivals - "short-eared", who not only destroyed the tribe, but also their inherent culture. As a result of the events that took place on Easter Island, a whole era ended, which lasted more than one century, and possibly even a millennium. What it was during the period remained an unsolved mystery for many. Roggeven and his assistants were unable to find out practically anything about her. Captain Cook, La Perouse and the Spaniards, who discovered this island in the second half of the 18th century, did not show curiosity about ancient artifacts, they were looking only for new territories that could be developed and used as colonies. By the time European researchers finally woke up interest in cultural heritage other nations, only silent witnesses of its majestic past remained on Easter Island - these are huge and breathtaking statues. Now they have been thrown from their foundations, on the edge of the crater there was only an abandoned temple and several strange wooden tablets with unknown hieroglyphs. The number of local residents decreased not only because of the incessant civil wars. In 1862, slave traders from Peru burst here, they captured and took out about nine hundred people, including the last king. The prisoners were sent to extract fertilizers in the Atacama Desert. Later, another three hundred inhabitants of the island were captured and sent to Tahiti for hard labor on the plantations. When, on Easter, a showy war began, organized by Dutroux-Bornier at the request of a French company, the remaining inhabitants and inhabited missionaries fled from it. Subsequently, they moved to the Gambier archipelago, located in more westward... Thus, the population of the island in fifteen years has decreased from two and a half thousand to one hundred and eleven people! Therefore, those few people who decided to stay, no longer remembered anything about the age-old customs of their forefathers.

Interesting facts about the inhabitants of the island (Fig. 6). According to H.P. Blavatsky, the multi-colored skin of the local aborigines indicates that different peoples have mixed on Easter Island, which include the Lemurians (the third hereditary race) and the Antlants (the fourth hereditary race). This information is contained in the Secret Doctrine of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, where Easter Island is mentioned as the habitat of some of the earliest generations of the third race. An unexpected volcanic eruption and the rise of the ocean floor sank it, along with all the monuments and culture. At the same time, the island remained untouched, as proof of the existence of Lemuria. There is another interpretation - the territory of Easter was occupied by several Atlanteans, who, fleeing from the cataclysm that occurred in their area, settled on the rest of Lemuria, but not for long, since it was subsequently destroyed by a volcanic eruption and collapsed lava. Thus, it becomes clear that the ancestors of black Lemurians, as well as red-skinned and fair-skinned Atlanteans, were mixed in this territory.

A blow that destroyed the culture of the ancient people.

A large number of scientists have made a lot of efforts to reconstruct the culture of the Easter population piece by piece. But the resulting picture was incomplete. The researchers were fortunate enough to find out that on this small piece of land, measuring only one hundred and eighteen square kilometers, there are two cultural centers:

Rano Raraku quarry;
the Orongo sanctuary on the edge of the Rano Kao volcanic mountain.

At the same time, Rano Raraku is also a volcano crater, on the southern side of which there are ancient quarries. In them, huge sacred statues were subsequently carved from the porous rock of the rocks. This mountain still bears the aftermath of a terrible civil war. A large number of statues remained unfinished, at various stages of completion. For some, only the first outlines are observed, for others, for readiness, it is enough to work with a chisel several times in order to freely dissociate them from the rock and move them. The rest are standing or lying around and are already prepared for shipment. One of the most massive ready-made monuments is Rano Raraku, whose summit is twenty-two meters from the ground. At the base of the volcano, there is a huge platform formed of basalt blocks, another similar platform is located below, directly on the coast. Its length is fifty meters. The lower platform once housed fifteen stone idols. However, now they are all, with the exception of one, lying on the ground. The race of "short-eared", completely defeated the carriers of the mysterious culture of "long-eared", dumped their huge monuments, while breaking stones from the foundation.

The mass of the largest idols reaches fifty tons. To dislodge them, stone hammers, axes and chisels were used, due to the fact that the locals did not know how to make tools from metal. Most incomprehensible is the way in which these statues were transported from the volcano to the sites located at its base, as well as at a considerable distance from it. After all, there were not many people on Easter Island to carry out the forced work. Therefore, it is believed that stone idols were transported with the help of small groups of local residents, using for this rigid cables made of reed or plant threads, wooden rollers and levers. Then they were installed vertically with a neat supply under their base of a stone embankment. But this business did not end. Now, on the island, on which there is practically no vegetation cover, such monuments can be seen everywhere. They are standing, lying, unfinished, or just started. A bloody civil war at the end of the 18th century. led to the collapse of these iconic sculptures. It should be noted that these statues were used not only as tombstones, they had a peculiar spiritual purpose, evidence of which was found on the rocky plateau of Orongo, which extends at the base of Rano Kao on the southwestern side of Easter Island. In that place, not far from the crater of the volcano, there are mysterious buildings without a hole for windows, erected from bulky stone blocks. And on the rocks around them a lot of incomprehensible images are minted.

Bird-man.

According to ancient legends, once a year the priests turned to God with a request to choose a new bird-man. The man chosen for this role was to organize a group of several guys and go with them to the stone dwellings and caves of Rano Kao. Once there, they waited (sometimes for months) until the island's gulls lay their eggs on a rock several hundred feet from the coast. Then the group, floating on the water, headed to the rock called Motunui. The first person to arrive immediately had to start looking for the egg, then wash it and bring it intact to the island. Having done this, he, filled with pride, gave the egg to the leader of the tribe, who, from that moment on, acquired the status of bird-man. Clutching it in the palm of his hand, the head of the tribe danced along the entire southern coast of the island until he got to Rano Raraku. In this place, the leader had to live for twelve months next to the stone inhabitants on Rapanui. He lived there completely alone, spending time in prayer and meditation. For the rest of the Rapanui people, this place was forbidden, because the quarters of the respected master settled there. The main deity of this outlandish religion was Make-Make. At the same time, he has no resemblance either to the creator God known to us, or to the Creator of the entire Universe. He, his comrade-in-arms - the lord of the seagulls and three deities - the guardians of eggs and future descendants, demanded an offering of human sacrifices. It is possible that once upon a time cannibalism could well have existed on the island.

If you carefully study the legend of the bird-man and compare it with primordial knowledge, then a completely clear logical picture emerges. Suppose that, unlike our civilization, the ancient inhabitants of Easter Island did not have a materialistic perception, but lived with a predominance of spiritual values. Maybe because of this, some of the Europeans needed to destroy their culture in such a hurry?

Then it turns out that the election of the next bird-man (the bird is a symbol of the front essence) is nothing more than the choice of the most spiritually developed personality to perform important tasks (climate control, weather, seismic activity, perhaps even the solution of planetary tasks). For this, he recruited a group of young men to form a circle of power. In this case, it is logical to assume what they were doing while being together in the cave - they studied, were engaged intensively in spiritual practices, spiritual self-development, self-disclosure. When the group was ready, something like an exam or a test for the possession of certain properties related to understanding the structure of the world (the symbol is the world egg) was appointed. After that, this bird-man began to work with the largest ahu Rano Raraku. This is confirmed by the symbols inscribed on many statues, perhaps it is worth taking a closer look at them to study the signs with which the bird-man worked.

The connection between the worship of the bird-man and the massive stone idols is proved by the images inscribed on the backs of most of the statues. These drawings depict skeletons, ghosts, deities, but most often - a bird-man. In 1722, the cult of worship of demigod and huge statues was promoted to the fullest, but after the landing of the "short-eared" tribe on Rapanui, everything changed dramatically. Legends tell of several boats big size, on which there were about three hundred men and, most likely, the same number of women. Scientists believe that they fled the Rapaiti Islands after the outbreak of a terrible civil war or an incinerating drought.

From the AllatRa book:

Anastasia: A few more words about Easter Island. The local population retained beliefs that the ceremonial platforms ("ahu"), on which some stone statues are located, are a link between the visible and invisible (otherworldly) worlds, that the stone statues themselves ("moai") contain the supernatural power of their ancestors. The latter is believed to be capable of regulating natural phenomena and, accordingly, lead to a favorable outcome - the prosperity of the people ...

Rigden: Yes, there is nothing supernatural there. It's just that once upon a time there lived people who knew how and for what it was necessary to activate some signs. If their descendants had not lost the knowledge that they were given, then those living on that island would have understood themselves more and their elementary connection with other worlds. Usually for the chronicle, as a transfer of knowledge and legends to descendants, knowledgeable people put signs on stone statues, and they often decorated themselves with appropriate tattoos that had a special symbolic meaning. For ignorant people, these were drawings that did not mean anything at all, but inspired respect and fear of those who, in their opinion, "probably knew something special." Later, of course, there was an ordinary imitation.

Anastasia: Yes, but there are no signs on the stone heads and platforms on Easter Island.

Rigden: Who said that these heads have no continuation? Yes, let them dig deeper in those places, then maybe they will find what is hidden from their eyes. But that is not the question. Even if people find something interesting in signs and symbols, what will they do with it? With the domination of material thinking and the absence of Knowledge, at best, they will make a sensation in the media in order to attract to the island more tourists and make money. That's all. Knowledge is valuable for a spiritual seeker only when you can use it and improve yourself, provide spiritual help to other people. (page 443)

Letter and symbols.

It must be said that the culture of the islanders did not die with them. Along with the worship of the bird-man and massive idols, the tribe of "long-eared" also possessed writing skills. Therefore, it is natural that the "short-eared" managed to take advantage of them. In the first half of the 19th century, the last of the literate Ariki remained to rule on the island, he was called Ngaara, he was white-skinned and short in stature. The ruler accumulated a whole repository of symbolic tablets with hieroglyphs, and also taught the features of the sacred writing of rongo-rongo at school. Only a select few were provided for training him, for the rest of the inhabitants of the island it was the strictest prohibition. They had no right to even touch these tablets. And those who nevertheless were allowed to learn the rongo-rongo alphabet, which included several hundred characters, had yet another test. First of all, they had to get used to twisting rope knots and silhouettes that fit these hieroglyphs. Similar tests are also known in many other parts of the world.

From the AllatRa book:

“Anastasia: The importance of some signs, in my opinion, proves one more fact of a kind of“ hunt ”for them. Take, for example, the story of the ancient writing of Easter Island. In that area, knowledge about signs and symbols, however, as well as their use in writing, disappeared quite recently, in the middle of the 19th century, when the "Western Civilization" broke into the island in the form of people who sailed on Dutch and Spanish ships. A Catholic missionary who visited the island told the world about the unusual writing of the island. The inhabitants of Easter Island kept their notes with special signs on wooden tablets, which were in almost every house. But, having opened the signs of Easter Island to the Europeans, this missionary and his followers at the same time did everything to destroy this writing, to burn it like a pagan heresy. And what is left of this very recently existing culture now? Several hundred huge sculptures-heads as high as a multi-storey building and weighing more than twenty tons, scattered throughout Easter Island, and a couple of dozen plaques - written monuments, which miraculously survived, as well as a staff and a breastplate with letters. Moreover, the latter are scattered across various museums around the world. It seems that the world priests, having learned about these signs and symbols, did everything to destroy them, even though this was already actually a pitiful remnant of the once-past knowledge. "

Rigden: Well, the Archons do not sleep, they act. Someone who, but they understand what signs are, and even more so, what an activated sign is in work. (page 439)

Among the primitive settlers of Oceania, where established habits and traditions have not lost their true meaning, knot magic has become especially widespread. You can read about this in the one hundred and thirteenth chapter of the Koran. His modern interpreters explain this fact as witchcraft. In the old explanations, on the contrary, it is believed that the mention of knots in the Qur'an means sorceresses who knit magic figures, then blow on them and pronounce spells, which contributes to the attraction of evil. Moreover, in Arabia, such things were considered quite common in the pre-Islamic period. But today it is no longer possible to find either a Christian or an Arab who would understand anything in "lace witchcraft". But in those regions where traditional beliefs have not supplanted the worship of deities, as well as ancient and mystical customs, people still knit magic knots, which often form rather complex configurations. This is customary among peoples such as:

• Eskimos;
• Indians of North, Central and South America;
• all African peoples;
• island tribes of Oceania;
• native inhabitants of Australia and East Asia, including Japan.

In most cases, various rope shapes are made for fun. But at the same time, you can often hear how the aborigines, pulling a knitted silhouette from a cord on their fingers, pronounce ancient words with a magical meaning. Such witchcraft is especially developed in the isolated territories of the Melanesian Archipelago, Micronesia, Polynesia, as well as among the American Indians.

At the moment, scientists are familiar with about three and a half thousand such figures. The material for their manufacture is an ordinary rope, the ends of which are tied, or a woven synthetic lace. In ancient times, tribes used animal veins, intestinal fibers, connected or twisted plant threads, and sometimes even long locks of human hair to obtain magical patterns.

Sometimes it happens that the ritual is based on the worship of spirits and mystical creatures. So, for example, the Eskimos are convinced of the existence of a soul in bound figures and are overly afraid of it, since, in their opinion, it can pose a danger to their life. If someone plays with ropes for too long or does it at an unauthorized time, then the characteristic rustling is heard in front of the dwelling, and at this moment inside the tent the light of the lamp begins to slowly fade away. And only the knowledgeable understand that the spirit of the connected figures is approaching in this way. At one time, he removed the insides from his dried up body and now he himself is engaged in knitting from dehydrated intestines. This process is accompanied by a sound similar to the rustling of paper.

An interesting fact is that the Navajo Indians, who settled in the northwestern United States of America, are convinced that knotting arose in ancient times with the help of the Spider-Man tribe, and they later taught this craft to other people. A large number of peoples tie figures from laces in order to later donate them to their deities. But the inhabitants of the Gilbert Islands in Micronesia are sure that such silhouettes appeared at the time of the creation of the world.

A gift that gives passage to another world.

As one belief says: "When the heavens were cut off from the earth at the origin of life, the demigod rose and, while the sky was gradually" rising, "he tied eleven knots one after another." On the Gilbert Islands, they are still familiar today, and cheat Maude even managed to capture ten of them.

Leading signs.

It becomes clear why scientists still fail to interpret ancient records that are more symbolic than alphabetical, especially if we consider that they have survived only partially. These symbols, which have succumbed to oblivion, explain the real details and mysteries of a much older culture. So far, only twenty surviving epistles have been studied. They are in museums in Germany, Belgium, Chile, USA, Russia, England and Austria.

If you do not take into account the interpretation of Hausen, in which there is a decoding of about five hundred characters, the meaning of the rongo-rongo hieroglyphs has not yet been revealed. In doing so, they provoke interesting conclusions. Similar scripts were common among the natives of northwestern India in the 4th millennium BC. Subsequently, their culture also disappeared. Some historians believe that certain components of this culture, including writing, came to Polynesia sometime in the 2nd millennium BC. Then the tribe "long-eared" spread them to the island of Rapanui, where they rested for many centuries, and possibly millennia. This continued until the death of knowledgeable people and priests caused the appearance unsolved mystery for current researchers.

Any figure, woven from ropes, suited a certain melody that needed to be memorized, as well as a certain sign-drawing. These hieroglyphs were not letters or phrases, but at the same time they reflected some concepts and important thoughts. They were obtained with a volcanic glass chisel or grinded with a shark tooth. Each line was made from bottom to top. In this case, the lowest one was drawn from left to right, and the next one, on the contrary. In addition, characters were drawn upside-down in every even line. Scientists have given the name to this peculiar writing system bustrofedon. However, in world literature, this method is extremely rare. The mysterious writing remained unknown for a long time. Therefore, the Europeans were not immediately able to find out about it. The first information about it surfaced only in 1817, when Tepano Hausen began to study them in detail. He was greatly amazed when he realized that only a small number of literate islanders can read the texts written on the tablets, but at the same time they retell their essence in their own words, using signs solely as a hint. The information that pops up from the tips was learned by heart, but everyone learned it in their own way.

Here's an interesting point from Wikipedia that clearly shows how the archons, through their people, in this case the priests, uprooted the Rongo-rongo culture. Thomson was told about an old man named Ure Va'e Iko. He assured that he understood most of the signs, since he took reading lessons. He was in charge of the last king from the dynasty of monarchs - Nga'ara, who had the ability to read at least one learned text and reproduce many songs, but did not know how to write in rongo-rongo. Having learned this, Thomson began to load the old man with various gifts and coins in the hope that he would tell what is written in the tablets. But Ure Va'e Iko didn’t agree, as Christian priests didn’t allow him to do it, intimidating him with death. After that, he fled. However, Thomson later took photographs of the mysterious tablets and, with great efforts, persuaded the old man to reproduce the text written on them. While Ure was talking, Alexander Salmon wrote down all the information under dictation, and a little later he translated it into English.

Mysterious notebook.

One day Thor Heyerdahl decided to visit a shack on Easter Island. The owner of the hut claimed that he had a certain notebook written by his grandfather, who was aware of the secret of kohau rongo-rongo. It displays the main hieroglyphs of ancient writing, as well as the decoding of their meaning, indicated in Latin letters. But when the scientist tried to study the notebook, Esteban immediately hid it. Shortly after this event, witnesses claim that they saw him sailing in a small boat to the island of Tahiti. Most likely, the notebook was also with him. Since then, no one has heard of Esteban. Therefore, what happened to the notebook is also not clear.

One day, missionaries noticed a surprising similarity between the writing system that existed on Easter Island and hieroglyphs. Ancient egypt... At the same time, it turned out that one hundred and seventy-five characters of the kohau rongo-rongo are absolutely identical with the outlines of Hindustan. And their similarity with the ancient Chinese writing was established by the Austrian archaeologist Robert Teldern in 1951. American and German scientists are convinced that the writing system that once existed in Polynesia was miraculously not lost and remained on Easter Island.

The unusual tradition of the natives to achieve drooping earlobes testifies to the reverence for the possibilities of acute hearing, which at one time was the main advantage of the Lemurians. It was they who could pick up sounds that are absolutely incomprehensible to a modern person.

Such an amazing rumor was also mentioned in the book "Fragments forgotten history"It was argued that such physical data arose due to the development of the spirit. They had access to sounds that we are not able to hear, and this was their happiness. It was as a reverence for such a gift that previous generations of Lemurians rewarded themselves with drooping earlobes. wanted to be like their distant ancestors.

Creation of sculptures for the glory of the gods.

Behrens loved to talk about the rich vegetation of Easter Island, as well as the huge harvests of vegetables and fruits that were harvested every year. When he described the local inhabitants, he wrote the following: "Always vigorous, of a good physique, excellent runners, friendly, but extremely fearful. Almost each of them, having brought gifts, hurriedly threw them to the ground and immediately ran away, which is strength." As for the color of the skin, it has different shades - among them there are both blacks and completely white inhabitants, in addition, there are even redskins, which gives the impression that they are sunburned. Their ears are long and often reach down to the shoulders. Some have small white bars inserted into their lobes as decoration.

According to some statements, the amazing abilities of Rapanui are the will of the gods. They made them so that they could be responsible for the part of the world to which they are fully deployed. The inhabitants of the island confirmed that their ancestors once long ago were engaged in the construction of the now-known monuments, as they had tremendous power. However, this is not currently permitted. Having heard this version, James Cook did not want to believe it and even formulated the key mysteries of the island - how the idols could have arisen and why they do not appear now.

However, the islanders do not support this proposal and talk about the bird-people, that is, the deities who descended to earth, installed and flew back. The images of people with wings found on the island serve as evidence of this version.

Thus, the Rapanui culture has long agitated the minds of researchers with its uniqueness and mystery. Its envoys created unique stone monuments, which testifies to the high level of development of this civilization. All statues appeared between 1250 and 1500. Their known number today is eight hundred and eighty-seven idols. At the same time, practically nothing is known about the inhabitants of Easter Island themselves. Indeed, at the time of its discovery by Europeans in the 18th century, a backward race was discovered that could not make such monuments in any way. When the island was captured by slave traders in the 19th century, the last remnants of civilization were buried.

In an article that was featured in the journal Antiquity, archaeologists provided a detailed overview of the arrowheads found in large quantities in almost all parts of the island. According to the analysis carried out, they are absolutely unsuitable for military operations. This conclusion is due to the fact that the main purpose of a good weapon is to kill the enemy, and spears from the island can only injure a person, but not fatally. Therefore, most likely, these tips served the local residents as tools for cultivating the land, food, and various tattoos on the body. Also, there is no evidence of large-scale and bloody wars on the island. So it can be argued that the death of the ancient culture is most likely due to the lack of resources and the transformation of the economic structure. In theory, the revival of civilization was very possible, but this was prevented by the arriving Europeans.

Research results.

After reviewing the materials of various researchers, scientists, simply looking for people, the impression was that there is interest in the island, but the catastrophic lack of true information leads the student either into the jungle of harmonious standard theories, or to the conclusion that we will never know the truth.

So, what we managed to find out:

1. There are several types of moai (statues) on the island, some recently put on pedestals, others are scattered around the island, others are partially buried in the ground, some very deep.

2. Also, these statues differ in size and appearance, apparently made at different times.

3. At the moment, official science says that the Moai were created around 1200-1400 years AD. And those that are in the ground up to the shoulders, just over time, skidded by the soil. How long does it take for nature to raise the soil level by 2-3 meters or more? Somehow it doesn't add up.

4. There are several traditions on the island that vaguely resemble the actions of people who had spiritual knowledge about man and the world (skin whitening, cult of the bird-man).

5. Despite the many mysteries and open opportunities to explore the island, the local authorities do not conduct formal scientific research. Moreover, such research is taboo, excavations are prohibited, and the same is the case with underwater research near the island. Researchers are awaiting a warning from the police or special services and a prison. There are many examples of this. Even that unearthed by Thor Heyerdahl has been buried. It turns out that someone is afraid that people will find out the truth, which is kept by the island's artifacts and handwriting, familiar in many similar places around the world. The work of the archons deserves a detailed study so that, understanding the methods of their influence, which have not changed for centuries, it would be possible to identify them in the everyday life of society and bring them up for a nationwide review.

6. A very interesting question about the writing that was on the island and was destroyed so quickly with the arrival of the Europeans, in less than a century, almost no one remembered how to read and write their traditional signs and symbols. And those who still remembered the letter fled from the researchers like fire. Apparently taught by bitter experience.

7. From what has been said, it becomes obvious that an ancient culture existed on the island before the appearance of Europeans, which kept true knowledge and not only kept, but also actively used it. For example, "plasticine" technology of stone processing (when the stone for processing became plastic like plasticine), cutting and transportation of multi-ton stone statues, three-layer ahu (platforms), the lower layer is lined with polygonal masonry, like many other megalithic buildings on different continents. The very fact of creating statues and installing them around the perimeter of the island suggests that there was a need (at least of the local population), and as we have already found out, these were knowledgeable spiritual people, this need could be associated with the creation of certain conditions for the whole world, or some part of it. Since "moai have the power northern winds and are responsible for the side of the world in which they look. " It could be like climatic conditions and spiritual, perhaps Rigden Djappo will find it necessary and reveal to us the true purpose of the statues and their sacred meaning.

Thus, even now, many secrets of Easter Island remain unsolved and it is possible that the answers to questions of interest to scientists have already been lost forever. However, while research is underway, people do not lose hope of solving the puzzle created many centuries ago.

Prepared by: Alex Ermak (Kiev, Ukraine)

Easter Island is a tiny piece of lava, with its outlines reminiscent of a Napoleonic cocked hat, for thousands of miles around it is embraced by the ocean, heavenly space and silence. Unless, of course, we do not take into account the cries of seagulls and the monotonous rhythm of the ocean surf.

As the tireless explorer of the island, Catherine Rauplege, wrote, "someone who lives here always listens to something, although he himself does not know what, and involuntarily feels himself on the eve of something even greater, which lies beyond our perception."


Everywhere on the island there are traces of a bygone past - in the long corridors of countless caves strewn with fragments of obsidian; on the slopes of volcanoes, covered with the remains of an extinct culture; in the eye sockets of stone giants, some of which lie staring at the zenith, while others rise above the island, gazing into an unknown distance.



Some of the famous mathematicians noticed that life on earth is an immense kingdom of approximate values. It seems that this thesis convincingly demonstrates our ideas about Easter Island.


So when it comes to the origin of the island, the origins of its ancient civilization, the purpose of the mysterious stone colossi and much more, which make up its many mysteries, it is always useful to remember the relativity of the knowledge that the scientific world has at its disposal today.


Interest in this tiny volcanic formation, lost in the ocean vastness, does not diminish over time. And the number of publications about this place is growing from year to year. It is difficult to say whether we are getting closer to the truth from this, but something else is undoubtedly: Easter Island knows how to puzzle and surprise.


Thor Heyerdahl had a similar feeling in the face of exciting uncertainty when he explored the mysterious island, where the inhabitants "did not build castles, palaces, dams, or piers. a wagon, dragged many of them across mountains and valleys, and set them up on powerful terraces at all ends of the island ... "


The indefatigable craving of the ancient inhabitants of the island to hew out huge stone figures, the largest of which is as high as a seven-story building and weighing 88 tons, has borne fruit: there are many hundreds of them on the island. They say about a thousand maoi (the local name for the statues). But the next archaeological expedition reveals more and more statues every time.

One of the island's explorers, Pierre Loti, described his impressions of the stone giants in the following way: “What kind of human race do these statues belong to, with slightly upturned noses and thin protruding lips, expressing either contempt or ridicule.

Instead of eyes, only deep depressions, but under the arch of wide noble browbrows, they seem to be looking and thinking. On both sides of the cheeks, protrusions depicting either a headdress similar to a sphinx's cap, or protruding flat ears, five to eight meters long. Some wear necklaces inlaid with flint, others are decorated with carved tattoos. "


The statues described by Pierre Loti are considered by a number of island explorers to be the most ancient. But besides these, there are statues of a different kind. “Every day we find statues of a different style - other people,” wrote Francis Maziere, who visited the island on a scientific expedition in the mid-60s of the last century. watch the life of the island. They and only have open eyes. On the heads of these statues are huge red cylinders made of red tuff. "


Thor Heyerdahl's expedition discovered a bearded figure in a seated position. It was not like other island sculptures, causing a lot of speculation about its origin.


The French explorer Francis Maziere became the owner of a human figurine made of wood, which, in terms of the nature of its execution, was strikingly different from everything he had seen on the island earlier. This prompted the researcher to suggest that this figurine has nothing to do with Polynesian traditions and belongs to a different race.


Surprises await explorers in the labyrinths of island caves. Rock frescoes were found in one of them. One of them resembles a penguin with a whale tail. The other depicts the head unknown creature... This is the head of a bearded man with insect eyes. Deer antlers branch out on its skull. The islanders call him "insect man".


But what peoples created eyeless giants at the foot of the Raku-Raraku volcano? Who is the creator of the giants that stand along the coast? Whose hand painted the head of an "insect man" in one of the caves? "The locals cannot explain anything," wrote Francis Maziere. "They tell such a confusing jumble of legends that one might think that they never knew anything and that they are not the descendants of the last sculptors."


A modern tourist who has visited the island, as a rule, is presented as an "exotic dish" with a story about the war of two island tribes - "long-eared" and "short-eared".


The legend of the arrival on the island of Hotu-Matua, the leader of the ancestors of the current islanders, is still in circulation. "The land that Hotu-Matua owned was called Maori and was located in Khiva ... The leader noticed that his land was slowly sinking into the sea. He gathered his servants, men, women, children and old people, and put them on two large boats. reached the horizon, the leader saw that all the land, except for a small part of it, called the Maori, went under water. "


These stories, perhaps, retained echoes of some old events. Their fragmentary and obscure nature does not make it possible to even come close to the true history of the island. Even the purpose of the statues is not clear.
James Cook believed that stone idols were erected in honor of the buried rulers and leaders of the island. Professor Metro thought that the sculptures depicted deified people. The American scholar Thomson believed that the statues were portraits of noble people, while another explorer of the island, Maximilian Brown, believed that they represent their creators.


The fact that stone figures are images of gods was said by Catherine Rauplege. Admiral Roggevan, without expressing himself definitely, only noticed that the locals were making fire in front of the statues and, squatting, bow their heads.


Among Western researchers there is a "competitive" version about the purpose of the statues. According to her, the tribes living on the island were at war among themselves for the right to be the first. And supposedly the prestige in this relentless struggle was won, among other things, by the number of statues hewn by each rival tribe. Thus, according to this version, statues are not even a goal, but only a means of self-affirmation of people.


It is unlikely that the "aboriginal" of the island, old man Veriveri, who once told Francis Maziere, as a sign of special trust, would agree with such an interpretation, the following: "All maoi (statues) of Raku-Raraku are sacred and face the which is responsible. That is why the island was named Te-Pito-o-te-Henua, or the Navel of the Earth ...


Easter Island, the Navel of the Earth .... But these are not the only names for the island. Our compatriot Miklouha Maclay wrote down the following local name - "Mata-ki-te-Rangi". James Cook recorded several at once: "Vanhu", "Tamareki", "Teapi". The Polynesians called the island "Rapanui", and the islanders still call it "Te-Pito-o-te-Henua".


Many who visited the island paid attention to the eye-catching disproportion between giant statues, quarries of truly cyclopean proportions and modest-sized residential buildings of local residents.


"The obvious disproportionality of the ahu with the overthrown statues in comparison with the remains of houses was striking. The statues towered over the village, fixing their eyes on it. With their backs to the sea, these giants, it seemed, were called upon to support the courage of the people-captives of the land lost in the ocean." This is what Francis Maziere wrote.


He also owns these lines:
"The walls of the quarry, carved in the shape of a crater, are located on a very steep slope, and it was necessary to do a lot of work, not only in order to make cylinders out of it (maoi hats. - Author's note). And here, as elsewhere on the island, it seems as if ordinary human dimensions did not suit those who worked in this career. "


Meanwhile, Rapanui can hardly be called an ideal abode for the realization of titanically energy-intensive fantasies. To begin with, food and water resources on the island are limited. Fresh water, the main source of replenishment of which for centuries has been rains, is devoid of many mineral salts necessary for the body - this is the result of filtration of water as it passes through the spongy volcanic rocks of the island. The use of such water, according to experts, led to serious diseases.

The very obtaining of food required, apparently. huge energy consumption. And she, of course, was not enough. This is evidenced by at least the fact that cannibalism has developed relatively recently on the island. Even two Peruvian merchants were reported to have fallen victim to the cannibals.
Most scientists came to the conclusion that the first, unknown to us civilization, which was the creator of Maoi, other colossi, was subsequently destroyed and assimilated by the second migration, the decline of which has been observed on Rapanui for at least the last three hundred years.


"On the island you can find traces of a prehistoric people," concludes Francis Maziere, "whose presence we are beginning to feel more and more and which forces us to reconsider all the data on time and ethics imposed on us by science now ..."


Let's go back to our days. In the early 60s of the last century, a powerful tidal wave penetrating 600 meters into the interior of the island, some Maois were thrown up to 100 meters away. Work on the restoration of the statues began relatively recently - there was no appropriate lifting equipment.
It was only after the Japanese company Tadano donated $ 700,000 and delivered a powerful crane to the island that things got going. Many of the overturned maoi tsunamis have been raised this year. But the question arises: how did the ancient inhabitants of the island move the stone giants, the smallest of which weighs at least 35 tons?


All hypotheses that have arisen around this problem can be roughly divided into three categories. Fantastic appeal to alien power. The rationalistic approach relies on the use of all kinds of ropes, collars, winches, rollers by the islanders ... There is even a version according to which the statues moved along a road of several kilometers covered with sweet potato puree, which made it slippery.


There is also a hypothesis of a mystical nature. According to the islanders, the statues were moved by means of the spiritual power-mana, which was possessed by the leaders of their distant ancestors. "What if, in a certain era," asks Francis Maziere, "people knew how to use electromagnetic forces or anti-gravity forces? This assumption is crazy, but still less stupid than the story with the crushed sweet potato."


Of course, you can assume anything, but in the face of a colossus 22 meters high, conventional logic becomes powerless.

Easter Island is sometimes compared to a lava splinter, on which the most original art and the most mysterious writing in the world arose without transitional steps. The latter is a fact all the more significant since it has not been possible to find writing on the Polynesian islands until now.

On Easter Island, writing was found on relatively well-preserved wooden tablets, in the local dialect called kohau rongo-rongo. The fact that wooden planks have survived the darkness of centuries, many scientists explain by the complete absence of insects on the island.
Nevertheless, most of them were eventually destroyed. But the culprit was not the tree bugs introduced by the white man, but the religious fervor of a certain missionary. The story goes that the missionary Eugène Eyraud, who converted the inhabitants of the island to Christianity, forced these writings to be burned as pagan. So even the tiny Easter Island had its own Herostratus.
Nevertheless, a certain number of tablets have survived. Today in museums and private collections around the world there are no more than two dozen kohau rongo rongo. Many attempts have been made to decipher the contents of the ideogram tablets, but they all ended in failure.
As well as an attempt to explain the purpose of the paved roads, the time of their creation is lost in the mists of time. On the Island of Silence - another name for the island - there are three of them. And all three end in the ocean. Some researchers, on the basis of this, conclude that the island was once much larger than it is now.

Near Rapanui is the tiny islet of Motunui. This is a few hundred meters of a steep cliff, dotted with numerous grottoes. A stone platform has been preserved on it, on which statues were once installed, later thrown into the sea for some reason. "How could people build ahu with maoi there," reflects Francis Maziere, "where we cannot even get to by boat? Where it is impossible to climb the rock? What mass brought these multi-ton giants here? The theory of using sweet potato bedding is equally powerless here. , and the theory of wooden rollers! "

Was Easter Island once part of a wider land area? Around this issue in the scientific world, controversy continues to this day. In the second half of the 19th century, scientists Alfred Wallace and Thomas Huxley, already well-known at that time, hypothesized that the population of Oceania, including the inhabitants of Easter Island, is a remnant of the "oceanic" race that lived on the now sunken continent.

Academician Obruchev generally supported this theory. He believed that when the continent gradually began to sink under the water, the people of the highlands began to carve stone statues and place them in the lowlands, in the hope that this would appease the gods and stop the advance of the sea. Sometimes this continent figured in scientific hypotheses as the Pacifis, at other times as Lemuria.

The modern scientific world, with a few exceptions, perceives this kind of hypothesis with a great deal of skepticism. But on the other hand, history knows many examples when, at first glance, a completely insane idea turned out to be true. Let us recall at least the classical case with the hypothesis of "stones that fall from the sky."
In 1790, a meteorite fell in Gascony. A protocol was drawn up, signed by three hundred eyewitnesses, which was sent to the French Academy of Sciences. But the "tall Areopagus" called all this stupidity, since science was well aware that stones from the sky cannot fall. But this is so, by the way.

Recently, two hypotheses have been most widespread: the hypothesis of the American origin of the Polynesians and the Polynesian culture (to which a number of scientists include the Rapanui civilization) and the hypothesis of the settlement of the Polynesian islands from the west. Thor Heyerdahl argued that Polynesia was inhabited by two migratory waves.
The first arrived from the South American Pacific coast (the location of present-day Peru). The settlers of Andean origin, Polynesia owes the appearance of stone statues and hieroglyphic writing. The second wave came at the beginning of our millennium from the northwest coast of North America. At one time there was a rumor about the Vikings who sailed to Easter Island in time immemorial and settled there.

In some versions, they try to interpret the history of the island's civilization from the standpoint of ethnogenesis: supposedly, the first settlers, who had a high level of passionarity, were the only ones in all of Polynesia who knew the written language. But gradually, century after century, there was a dissipation of the initial level of passionarity, which ultimately led to the extinction of culture ...

Will our knowledge of Easter Island become more accurate? In any case, a number of researchers, for example, our compatriots F. Krendelev and A. Kondratov, rely on this in their book "Silent Guardians of Secrets". "The mysteries of Easter Island are one of the most burning and pressing problems of modern geology," they write. to help find a solution to the problems over which ethnographers, archaeologists, and historians have struggled unsuccessfully. "

It must be said that today the "exact sciences" have brought a number of interesting data to the problems of the evolution of the island. Rapanui is located in a unique geological location. Below it is the boundary of the fault of giant tectonic plates, which seem to divide the ocean floor. The oceanic plates of Nazca, Pacific and axial zones of underwater ocean ridges converge to the island. Which gives another reason to think about the symbolic name of the island. This is truly a kind of "Navel of the Earth".

Today, the main wealth of Rapanui residents is undoubtedly the mysterious past of their small island. It is this that attracts scientists from all over the world, which is why planes with tourists land at the local airport twice a week. At such times, the life of the island, unhurried and monotonous, like the surf of the ocean, comes to life. The small terminal building is filled with multilingual polyphony: someone is looking for a guide, someone offers a car for rent, someone needs a hotel ... But a few hours pass, and again peace and quiet reign over the island. The number of cars here can be counted on one hand. And they, too, obey the general rhythm of a leisurely existence. In these parts, the speed of 50 kilometers per hour looks like an unforgivable recklessness. Along the roads from time to time there are signs limiting the speed to 30 kilometers.

Easter Island is in no rush into the future. Modernity - air traffic, the Internet, telephone communications - has a limited sphere of influence here. The true masters of the island are still the silent stone guards, who firmly keep their secrets in reliably closed lips.

The publication is based on Russian and foreign materials about Easter Island.
Author of the publication

Easter Island has a unique landscape with volcanic craters, lava formations, shining blue water, beaches, low hills, cattle farms and many archaeological site, and most of them are devoted to the study of moai figures. They reach a height of 10 m. One of the figures, on the Anakena beach, was installed almost in its original position, and a memorial plaque was placed next to it in memory of the arrival of Thor Heyerdahl in 1955.

The rest of the figures are scattered around the island. Each of them has its own name. Poike is a statue with an open mouth, which is very much loved by the locals. Ahu Tahai is another notable statue, with a beautiful eye shape and a stone-hairdo on the top of the head. From here you can reach two of the island's many caves - one of which seems to have been the center of religious ceremonies.

Easter Island history

The sailors, when they first saw the island, were struck by these colossal stone statues lined up along the coast of the island. What kind of people were they capable of establishing multi-ton stone giants? Why did they settle in such a secluded place? Where did the stone from which the sculptures were made come from?

The first settlers on the island were the Polynesians in the 5th century. Their culture has survived to this day in the form of giant stone figures. (moai)... The bearers of this culture were also called "long-eared" because it was customary for them to stretch the earlobes to the shoulders. In the XIV century. under the leadership of Hotu-Matu "and on the island landed" short-eared ", adherents of the culture of" man-birds. "By the end of the 17th century. they managed to destroy the" long-eared "aborigines, and their culture was lost. Only fragmentary information about the ancient culture of Easter Island survived.

It is believed that the leader of the tribe, on the eve of death, ordered to carve a moai in the tuff rock of the Ranu-Raraku volcano - his own portrait in the form of a bird-man. After the death of the leader, the moai were placed on ahu, i.e. in the sanctuary, and his gaze was fixed on the dwellings of the tribe. It was believed that in this way he is able to transfer strength and wisdom to the heirs, and at the same time protect them in times of trouble. Many moai these days (12 m high, weighing several tons) restored and can be viewed. Tahai, Tongariki, Akivi, Hekii and Anakena are where Hotu Mato landed.

In Orongo (Orongo), a place at the foot of the Ranu-Kau volcano, the pioneers built a sanctuary for the supreme deity Makemake and annually brought sacrifices to the bird-man. For this, the first tern egg, which was considered the embodiment of the deity, was brought here from the island of Motu Nui, located at a distance of 1 km. All local tribes took part in the swimming speed competition, and the leader of the victorious tribe took the place of the bird-man.

His head and eyebrows were shaved, his face was covered with black and red paint and he was settled in a special ritual dwelling. Thus, he became the spiritual leader of all the tribes inhabiting the island for a year. The warrior who won the competition, who brought victory to his leader, was not forgotten - he was awarded all kinds of gifts.

The inhabitants of Easter Island possessed a script that was not fully deciphered. Small wooden tablets are covered with carved letters (gopdo gopdo) preserved to this day. These tablets are in every house on the island, but none of the residents could clearly explain their meaning and purpose. Rongo-rongo is no more than 30-50 cm in size, drawings on them depict animals, birds, plants and astronomical signs. Conventionally, the images can be divided into three themes: the first depict local gods, the second - the actions of the islanders, including the crimes they committed, the third are devoted to the history of internecine wars. The islanders were also excellent portrait carvers, as the small church at Hanga Roa testifies to this. Here ancient pagan beliefs merge with Christianity: a bird is certainly depicted over the heads of the saints.

According to legend, in 1400, a small handful of Polynesians, led by the leader Hotu Matua, reached an uninhabited island in the vast Pacific Ocean in their canoes. They named him Te-Pito-te-Henua, "The center of the earth." And Hotu Matua established several holy places along the coast. On the islands where he was from - possibly the Marquesas, there was a custom to install moai, monuments to the leaders of the tribe in the form of monumental stone statues.

The idols - 900 in number in their completed form - have a height of more than 10 m and a girth of 4.5 m, and there are unfinished statues in the quarry, whose height should have been 22 m! Perhaps they were moved from place to place using thick wooden rollers made from the trunks of trees growing in the jungle.

The grandiose figures were first plunged onto tree trunks, which served as either rollers or sleds. Then they were slowly pushed through the kilometers impenetrable jungle... To cope with such work, it would take the efforts of more than one hundred people.

In 1722 the first European landed on the island - the Dutch admiral Jacob Roggeven. On this day, Christendom celebrated Easter, which is why the European name Rapa Nui comes from.

Captain James Cook visited Easter Island in 1774 and found that most of the idols had been defeated, and some were even broken or bore signs of abuse. The island was practically uninhabited, and the pitiful remnants of the once large tribe huddled in fear in some eerie caves... What happened? The explanations of the islanders were abrupt and contradictory. Archeology gave scientists more coherent information: shortly after the departure of the Dutch expedition, a demographic catastrophe occurred on the island - overpopulation and famine. The cult of stone idols led to the fact that the forest on the island was reduced, accordingly reducing the sources of food. Several lean years in a row made the situation catastrophic. Bloody feuds and cannibalism began. When Captain Cook arrived on the island, he counted only 4,000 inhabitants instead of the 20,000 reported by Roggeven in 1722. But the worst was yet to come. In 1862, Peruvian soldiers landed on the island and took away 900 people as slaves. Later, part of the population was sent to Peru as slaves, and the rest did not stay long on the island either. By 1877, only 111 people remained on Easter Island. Later, part of the population was sent to Peru as slaves, and the rest did not stay long on the island either. In 1888 Chile annexed it to its territory. There was no self-government here until 1966, when the islanders first elected their president.

The eastern part of Easter Island, called Poike, was formed 2.5 million years ago as a result of powerful eruption volcano. After 1 million years, the southern part of the island, Ranu-Kau, appeared, and 240 thousand years ago - Maunga-Terevaka in the northeast, the highest island mountain (509 m).

On Easter Island there is a settlement called Hanga Roa, where most of the population lives. Their existence is mainly provided by tourism. There are a variety of hotels and restaurants here, and the extremely friendly locals will make sure your stay here is both comfortable and unforgettable.

An airport has been operating on Easter Island since 1964, which has strengthened ties with the outside world. No less than 20,000 tourists visit this mysterious piece of land every year. For the 3800 people living on the island now, sheep breeding is modeled on the model of the late 19th century. is an important component of the economy.

When to arrive

The most suitable period to visit Easter Island is from October to April, during this period the air temperature warms up to 22-30 ° С, and the water in the ocean - up to 20-23 ° С. From May to September it often rains, the weather is windy and cloudy, but it is still warm and the temperature fluctuates between 17 and 20 ° С.

Easter Island beaches

Easter Island's beaches are some of the best in Chile, with summer time the water warms up well, so families with children often come here. Anakena beach deserves a special recommendation: a quiet bay, tall palm trees, sand, which, when wet, acquires a pink hue, silent statues of formidable moai - all this captivates at first sight and makes you forget about time.

Tapati Rapa Nui Festival

If you find yourself on Easter Island at the end of January, be sure to visit the Tapati-Rapa-Nui folklore festival, which is a competition of dance and music ensembles. Both island groups and groups from Tahiti participate in the competition.

In addition, a Queen will be elected during the festival. Moreover, not only the applicants themselves, but also their relatives will fight for the title. The winner is the girl who will be the most pretty and whose relatives will be able to catch the most fish and weave the longest cloth.

Sightseeing visits

Since 2011, a new payment system for visiting attractions has been operating on Easter Island. Arriving on the island, each tourist will purchase a wrist bracelet, which will give him the right to multiple visits to all the sights of the island. The exceptions are the Orongo Ceremonial Center and the Rano Raraku Volcano, which can be viewed once. The authorities were forced to take such an unconventional step, since so far a large number of tourists have tried to evade paying for a visit. Now the situation with the "hares" must be resolved in a cardinal way.

The bracelets can be purchased at Mataveri Airport and are valid for five days and cost $ 21 for Chileans and $ 50 for foreign tourists. The bracelet can be transferred to another person.

Mysterious moai

When you use the phrase "Easter Island", the first thing that appears before your eyes is the rows of huge statues of moai, who fixed their stern gazes into the distance. The creation and history of these frozen statues for a long time remained a mystery to scientists, even today many aspects remain unclear or controversial.

It is believed that the inhabitants of Easter Island made moai statues in honor of deceased relatives. (in another version - deceased leaders) and installed on a special platform, which was called ahu and was nothing more than a burial place. Each clan had its own ahu. The islanders worshiped moai, and they gave them strength and protected their descendants from various disasters. The rite of worship of the moai looked like this: opposite the ahu, a fire was made, next to which the worshipers were squatting, with their faces down, they rhythmically raised and lowered their folded palms.

To date, it is known that the statues were made in the quarry of the extinct Ranu Raraku volcano, and unfinished moai were also found there, including the largest 21-meter El Gigante. On average, the height of the statues ranges from 3 to 5 m, less often statues of 10-12 m are found. On the heads of some statues, you can see "caps" of red rocks of the Puno Pao - Pukao volcano. They were supposed to symbolize the typical hairstyle of the islanders.

Most of the scientific controversy revolves around how the locals managed to transport these huge statues from the quarry to the ahu platforms. There are currently two main versions. According to one, the statues were transported to their destination by dragging with the help of various wooden rails, stops and other devices. As an argument in favor of this version, its defenders cite the fact that there are practically no forests left on the island, all of them were used to roll statues. In the mid 50s. XX century Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl, together with the descendants of the indigenous tribe "long-eared", conducted an experiment to carve, transport and install a moai statue. The last "long-eared" showed scientists how their ancestors carved statues with stone hammers, then dragged the statue in a prone position and, finally, using a simple mechanism consisting of stones and three levers, set it on a platform. When scientists asked why they did not talk about this before, the natives replied that no one had asked them about it before. According to another version (it was put forward by the Czech researcher Pavel Pavel) the statues were moved in an upright position using cables. With this method of transportation, the impression was created that the statues were "walking". In 2012, a group of anthropological scientists in the course of an experiment successfully proved the validity of such a version.

Heads and Tails: Easter Island

Facts

• Name and Sizes: Easter Island is also known as Rapa Nui. Its area is about 162.5 sq. km.
• Location: The island lies at 27 ° S and 109 ° W. Politically, it is considered Chilean territory. The closest inhabited land is Pitcairn Island, more than 2,000 km to the west. To Chile 3700 km, to Tahiti - 4000 km.
• Uniqueness: Easter Island is famous for its stone idols made from local volcanic tuff. More than 10 m in height, they weigh more than 150 tons.
• UNESCO World Heritage Site: The island was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995.

No South American traces were found in the genes of the ancient inhabitants of Easter Island.

Moai - this is the name of the monolithic stone statues for which Easter Island is primarily known. (Photo: Terry Hunt.)

Who doesn't know the stone statues from Easter Island - giant nosed statues made from compressed volcanic ash? According to local beliefs, they contain the supernatural power of the ancestors of the first king of Easter Island. There are about 900 known statues in total; they are believed to have been erected between 1250 and 1500 AD. e.

But who were these people who created the statues, how did they populate the island? To the nearest continental coast (Chile) - about 3.5 thousand km, to the nearest inhabited island - more than 2 thousand km. Thanks to Thor Heyerdahl, we know that you can sail the ocean between Polynesia and America on a makeshift raft. Probably, on Easter Island, at one time, populations from Polynesia and America could have mixed, and Polynesian travelers could have settled in America. “But probability is not proof,” says Lars Fehren-Schmitz ( Lars fehren-schmitz), professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.