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Rapa Nui ◆ Civilization
Rapa Nui

📷 Diego Gonzalez · Pexels

Where it ruled

North America & Oceania · 3 known sites

The civilization

Easter Island (Spanish: Isla de Pascua, [ˈizla ðe ˈpaskwa]; Rapa Nui: Rapa Nui, [ˈɾapa ˈnu.i]) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, called moai, which were created by the early Rapa Nui people. In 1995, UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site, with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park. Easter Island is also the only territory in Polynesia where Spanish is an official language. Experts differ on when the island's Polynesian inhabitants first reached the island.

Field notes

period
1,100 CE — 1,600 CE
region
North America & Oceania
known sites
3