Rapa Nui

Rapa Nui is the Indigenous name of the island often called Easter Island in English. Located in the southeastern Pacific, it is one of the world’s remote inhabited islands. Linguistic, archaeological and other evidence identifies the island’s Indigenous culture as Polynesian. The island is part of Chile, while Rapa Nui identity, language and community remain central to its history and present-day life.

The island’s archaeological landscape is broader than its famous statues. It includes ahu—stone ceremonial platforms—along with statue roads, quarries, dwellings, gardens, rock art and other places connected with past settlement and construction. These features are distributed across the island and are interpreted in relation to the landscapes and communities that created and used them.

Moai are monumental stone figures associated with Rapa Nui’s ancestral and ceremonial traditions. Many were carved at Rano Raraku, the principal statue quarry, and some were erected on ahu. Archaeological research examines how people quarried, moved and positioned the statues, as well as the social and cultural meanings of stone construction. The monuments were made over generations; individual dates and interpretations depend on archaeological evidence and remain subjects of scholarly study.

Rapa Nui National Park was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995 as a cultural landscape. Its heritage is not only archaeological: it is part of the living culture and identity of Rapa Nui people. Conservation and research therefore involve both the protection of material sites and respectful engagement with the community whose heritage they represent.