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Rapa Nui National Park
Rapa Nui National Park () is a national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located on Easter Island, Chile. Rapa Nui is the Polynesian name of Easter Island; its Spanish name is Isla de Pascua. The island is located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern extremity of the Polynesian Triangle. The island was taken over by Chile in 1888. Its fame and World Heritage status arise from the 887 extant stone statues known by the name "moai", whose creation is attributed to the early Rapa Nui people who inhabited the island starting between 300 and 1200 AD. Much of the island has been declared as Rapa Nui National Park which, on 22 March 1996, UNESCO designated a World Heritage Site under World Heritage Site#cultural criteria, cultural criteria (i), (iii), & (v). Rapa Nui National Park is now under the administrative control of the Ma´u Henua Polynesian Indigenous Community, which is the first autonomous institute on the island. The indigenous Rapa Nui people have regained ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ahu Akivi
Ahu Akivi is a particular sacred place on the Chilean island of Rapa Nui (or Easter Island), looking out towards the Pacific Ocean. The site has seven moai, all of equal shape and size, and is also known as a celestial observatory that was set up around the 16th century. The site is located inland, rather than along the coast. Moai statues were considered by the early people of Rapa Nui as their ancestors or Tupuna that were believed to be the reincarnation of important kings or leaders of their clans. The Moais were erected to protect and bring prosperity to their clan and village. A particular feature of the seven identical moai statues is that they exactly face sunset during the Spring Equinox and have their backs to the sunrise during the Autumn Equinox. Such an astronomically precise feature is seen only at this location on the island. Geography Ahu Akivi, aligned in an east–west direction, is located on the flank of the southern slope of Maunga Terevaka at Rapauni an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pitcairn Island
Pitcairn Island is the only inhabited island of the Pitcairn Islands, in the southern Pacific Ocean, of which many inhabitants are descendants of mutineers of HMS ''Bounty''. Geography The island is of volcanic origin, with a rugged cliff coastline. Unlike many other South Pacific islands, it is not surrounded by coral reefs that protect the coast. The only access to the island is via a small pier on Bounty Bay. Adamstown is the sole settlement. Pawala Valley Ridge is the island's highest point at above sea level. The volcanic soil and tropical climate with abundant rainfall make the soil productive. The average temperature ranges from . The annual rainfall is . Fauna Indigenous fauna consists of insects and lizards. Since their introduction, rats have become an invasive species. A large number of seabirds nest along the steep shorelines. As coral reefs are absent, fishing is offshore. Sharks, sea bream Sparidae is a family of ray-finned fishes belonging to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paschalococos
''Paschalococos disperta'', the Rapa Nui palm or Easter Island palm, formerly '' Jubaea disperta,'' was the native coccoid palm species of Easter Island. It disappeared from the pollen record circa AD 1650. Taxonomy It is not known whether the species is distinct from ''Jubaea,'' but there is no evidence that it was ''Jubaea'' either, as the soft tissues used for the identification of cocoid genera have not been preserved. All that remain are pollen from lake beds, hollow endocarps (nuts) found in a cave, and casts of root bosses. Partly to avoid giving credence to the common but speculative assumption that the palms were ''Jubaea chilensis'' and used as rollers to move the moai statues of Easter Island, John Dransfield assigned the species to a new genus. The assignment is not accepted by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, which does not list the genus ''Paschalococos'', nor by The Plant List which regards the name as "unresolved". Usage and extinction The over-h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sophora Toromiro
''Sophora toromiro'', commonly known as toromiro, is a species of Flowering plant, flowering tree in the legume family, Fabaceae, that is Endemism, endemic to Easter Island. ''Sophora toromiro'' is extinct in the wild due to overharvesting and overgrazing, but some individuals survive in botanical and private collections. It holds significant cultural importance for the Rapa Nui people, known for its statues, ceremonial objects, and other tools made from the wood. The species serves as proof that human intervention of a natural environment can drastically change the composition of native flora negatively, even to the point of extinction in the wild. Few specimens survive today only in cultivation in certain botanical gardens around the world, but are limited due to a small genetic pool. Conservation efforts have been made to eventually reintroduce ''Sophora toromiro'' in the wild. Description ''Sophora toromiro'' is considered a small shrub or large tree, with its adult height ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish Language
Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, global language with 483 million native speakers, mainly in the Americas and Spain, and about 558 million speakers total, including second-language speakers. Spanish is the official language of List of countries where Spanish is an official language, 20 countries, as well as one of the Official languages of the United Nations, six official languages of the United Nations. Spanish is the world's list of languages by number of native speakers, second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese; the world's list of languages by total number of speakers, fourth-most spoken language overall after English language, English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani language, Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu); and the world's most widely spoken Romance language ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rapa Iti
Rapa, also called Rapa Iti, or "Little Rapa", to distinguish it from Easter Island, whose Polynesian name is Rapa Nui, is the largest and only inhabited island of the Bass Islands in French Polynesia. An older name for the island is Oparo. The total land area including offshore islets is . As of the 2022 census, Rapa had a population of 451. The island's highest point is at elevation at Mont Perahu. Its main town is Ahuréi. The inhabitants of Rapa Iti speak their own Polynesian language called the Rapa language. Geography Rapa Iti is located at . It is shaped roughly like a Greek final sigma (ς), with a well-protected central bay, surrounded by a ring of relatively high mountains. The whole island appears to be the peak of a sinking volcano, with the bay as well as the caldera. The area of the main island is 38.5 km2. Little Rapa Tauturau is an offshore island. Its main town, Ahuréi (or Ha'uréi), lies on the southern shore of that bay, which is called the Baie d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacob Roggeveen
Jacob Roggeveen (1 February 1659 – 31 January 1729) was a Dutch explorer who was sent to find Terra Australis and Davis Land, but instead found Easter Island (called so because he landed there on Easter Sunday). Jacob Roggeveen also found Bora Bora and Maupiti of the Society Islands, as well as Samoa. He planned the expedition along with his brother Jan Roggeveen, who stayed in the Netherlands. Early career His father, Arend Roggeveen, was a mathematician with much knowledge of astronomy, geography, rhetorics, philosophy, and the theory of navigation as well. He occupied himself with study of the mythical Terra Australis, and even got a patent for an exploratory excursion, but it was to be his son who, at the age of 62, eventually equipped three ships and made the expedition. He became notary of Middelburg (the capital of the province of Zeeland, where he was born). On 12 August 1690, he graduated as a doctor of the law at the University of Harderwijk. About this time he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orongo
Orongo () is a stone village and ceremonial center at the southwestern tip of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). It consists of a collection of low, sod-covered, windowless, round-walled buildings with even lower doors positioned on the high south-westerly tip of the large volcanic caldera called Rano Kau. Below Orongo on one side a 300-meter barren cliff face drops down to the ocean; on the other, a more gentle but still very steep grassy slope leads down to a freshwater marsh inside the high caldera. In 1974 UNESCO sponsored a project to restore Orongo. Under the supervision of William Mulloy, with the support of Rapanui archaeologist Sonia Haoa Cardinali, the first half of the ceremonial village's 53 stone masonry houses was investigated and restored in 1974. The remainder was completed in 1976 and subsequently investigated in 1985 and again in 1995. Orongo now has World Heritage status as part of the Rapa Nui National Park. History 69 Between the 18th and mid-19th centuries Oron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scoria
Scoria or cinder is a pyroclastic, highly vesicular, dark-colored volcanic rock formed by ejection from a volcano as a molten blob and cooled in the air to form discrete grains called clasts.Neuendorf, K.K.E., J.P. Mehl, Jr., and J.A. Jackson, eds. (2005) ''Glossary of Geology'' (5th ed.). Alexandria, Virginia, American Geological Institute. 779 pp. It is typically dark in color (brown, black or purplish-red), and basaltic or andesitic in composition. Scoria has relatively low density, as it is riddled with macroscopic ellipsoidal vesicles (gas bubbles), but in contrast to pumice, scoria always has a specific gravity greater than 1 and sinks in water. Scoria may form as part of a lava flow, typically near its surface, or as fragmental ejecta ( lapilli, blocks, and bombs), for instance in Strombolian eruptions that form steep-sided scoria cones, also called cinder cones. Scoria's holes or vesicles form when gases dissolved in the original magma come out of solution as it er ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tuff
Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock containing 25% to 75% ash is described as ''tuffaceous'' (for example, ''tuffaceous sandstone''). A pyroclastic rock containing 25–75% volcanic bombs or volcanic blocks is called tuff breccia. Tuff composed of sandy volcanic material can be referred to as volcanic sandstone. Tuff is a relatively soft rock, so it has been used for construction since ancient times. Because it is common in Italy, the Romans used it often for construction. The Rapa Nui people used it to make most of the ''moai'' statues on Easter Island. Tuff can be classified as either igneous or sedimentary rock. It is usually studied in the context of igneous petrology, although it is sometimes described using sedimentological terms. Tuff is often erroneously called t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ahu Tahai
The Tahai Ceremonial Complex is an archaeological site on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in Chilean Polynesia. Restored in 1974 by American archaeologist William Mulloy, Tahai comprises three principal ''ahu'' from north to south: Ko Te Riku (with restored eyes), Tahai, and Vai Ure. Visible in the distance from Tahai are two restored ''ahu'' at Hanga Kio'e, projects that Mulloy undertook in 1972. Like other Mulloy restoration projects at Ahu Akivi, the ceremonial village of Orongo and Vinapu, the ceremonial center at Tahai now constitutes an integral part of the Rapa Nui National Park, designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ... site. William Mulloy and his wife Emily Ross Mulloy are buried at Tahai. References * Mulloy, W.T., and S.R. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
