What's so mysterious about Easter Island?

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 22, 2005 In the vast South Pacific Ocean, there is an island with an area of only 100 square kilometers. Known as "Easter Island", this small island has always attracted tourists from all over the world with its ancient and mysterious historical sites and passionate traditional festivals, and the most lively time is Tapati Festival in February every year.

Tapati Festival is like the New Year on Easter Island. At the celebration, men were naked and painted patterns on their bodies. Women wear floral ornaments and feather skirts and dance beautiful feather skirts. This kind of dance is similar to the hula dance in Hawaii, and it is a "reserved program" of Chile's tourism activities. This lively atmosphere of celebration and joy will last for two weeks.

From 65438 to 0996, after Easter Island was listed as a "World Cultural Heritage" by UNESCO, many national traditional festivals including "Tapati Festival" were resumed one after another.

The most famous sight on Easter Island is the mysterious colossus. At sunrise and sunset, there is an eternal "silhouette" on the shore lawn, which is the world-famous "Stonehenge Statue". On Easter Island, there are more than 600 such stone statues, which the locals call "Moe". These statues are all long faces, high noses, deep eye sockets and upturned mouths, just like compatriots. They are generally 5 to 10 meters high and weigh dozens of tons; Some also use shells to cover their eyes, just like loyal guardians, staring at the distance.

So many stone carvings were built by who, when and for what, so far there is no definite answer. Some scientists believe that 654.38 million years ago, there was a continent in the South Pacific where ancient people lived. They live a civilized life similar to that of the ancient Incas. They can carve and build with huge stones. Later, great changes in land and sea caused the land to sink to the bottom of the sea, and only Easter Island in the marginal area survived. However, this is only a guess.

1722, the Dutch navy general Jacob Rothfen first discovered this island. Because it was discovered during Christian Easter, it was named "Easter Island". 1888, the island was incorporated into the territory of Chile. Easter Island is located more than 3,600 kilometers east of Chile and 1900 kilometers west of the nearest Pitcairn Island. Because it is located in the center of the earth, it is called "the navel of the earth".