Rapa Nui language in the context of "Rapa Nui people"

Isla Salas y Gómez (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈisla ˈsalas i ˈɣomes]), also known as Isla Sala y Gómez (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈisla ˈsalaj ˈɣomes]; Rapa Nui: Motu Motiro Hiva), is a small uninhabited Chilean island in the Pacific Ocean. It is sometimes considered the easternmost point in the Polynesian Triangle.

Isla Salas y Gómez and its surrounding waters are a Marine Protected Area called Parque Marino Salas y Gómez, with a surface area of 150,000 km. Throughout its history, the island has been largely untouched by humans, due to its diminutive size and remoteness.

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. While many researchers cited evidence that they arrived around the year 800, a 2007 study provided compelling evidence suggesting their arrival was closer to 1200. The inhabitants created a thriving and industrious culture, as evidenced by the island's numerous enormous stone moai and other artifacts. Land clearing for cultivation and the introduction of the Polynesian rat led to gradual deforestation. By the time of European arrival in 1722, the island's population was estimated to be 2,000 to 3,000. European diseases, Peruvian slave raiding expeditions in the 1860s, and emigration to other islands such as Tahiti further depleted the population, reducing it to a low of 111 native inhabitants in 1877.

Moai or moʻai (/ˈmoʊ.aɪ/ MOH-eye; Spanish: moái; Rapa Nui: moʻai, lit. 'statue') are monolithic human figures carved from stone by the Rapa Nui people, on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in eastern Polynesia between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the island's perimeter. Almost all moai have overly large heads, which account for three-eighths of the size of the whole statue. They also have no legs. The moai are chiefly the living faces (aringa ora) of deified ancestors (aringa ora ata tepuna).

The statues still gazed inland across their clan lands when Europeans first visited the island in 1722, but all of them had fallen by the latter part of the 19th century. The moai were toppled in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, possibly as a result of European contact or internecine tribal wars.

Hanga Roa (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈ(x)aŋɡa ˈroa]; Rapa Nui: Haŋa Roa [ˈhaŋa ˈɾoa], long bay) is the main town, harbour, and seat of Easter Island, a municipality of Chile. It is located in the southern part of the island's west coast, in the lowlands between the extinct volcanoes of Terevaka and Rano Kau.