Easter Island

A small island in the South Pacific off the coast of Chile. The island is a popular tourist destination and was discovered by a Dutch sailor who found the island on Easter day in 1822.

Mystery surrounds the people who originally resided on Easter Island, cut off from the continent. Over 100 large carved stone heads exist all over the island, each crafted expertly by the inhabitants and moved over large distances to be placed at various locations. The statues range in size from 3m to 12m tall, some also have large carved stone hats. The exact means with which the inhabitants would have moved these huge stones remains a subject of debate, it is thought that the lack of trees on the island is due to their use as rollers in this process.

Another enduring mystery relates to the disappearance of the island's inhabitants. It is thought that the people could have died out after exhausting all the island's natural resources, a miniature example of what could happen to the planet as a whole if the burning of fossil fuels and felling of the rainforests doesn't stop. Others believe the people died out due to diseases carried with them by the first foreign settlers to the island.

Article Copyright© Unexplained-Mysteries.com

Related entries: Ark of the Covenant, Atlantis, Easter Island, Nazca Lines, Plain of Jars

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