▲Hundreds of moai stone statues "famous objects in Easter Island" were damaged by wildfires and "cannot be repaired"
6 (local time), according to the Chilean Ministry of Culture and Art Heritage, on the 3rd of this month, a wildfire occurred on Easter Island, 3,500 kilometers away from the local area of Chile . The "moai" stone statues were burned and damaged by wildfires may not be compensated.
"Moai" stone statue is a huge stone statue, which was first known to the outside world when European explorers discovered the island in the 18th century. Although there are more than 1,000 statues of Moai on the entire island, it has not been found out who made it. For the indigenous Polynesian on the island, this is considered a sacred existence with the souls of the ancestors.
▲Beautiful scenery before the "Moai" stone statue was damaged.
, the deputy officer in charge of cultural heritage affairs, Carolina Perez, said on Twitter that day: "100 hectares of forests suffered from mountain fires. The worst-hit area is around the Lanoraku volcano, which is also recorded in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site."
▲ The authorities in Rapanui, Chile, disclosed the appearance of the "Moai" stone statue that was affected by the wildfires that occurred on Easter Island on the 3rd of this month.
Easter Island Mayor Pedro Edmunds said in an interview with local radio stations: "The wildfires on Easter Island are not just a disaster. The injured stone statues cannot be restored even if they spend a lot of money."
Easter Island National Park believes that the serious damage to the wildfire is due to the lack of manpower for volunteers and other people. Although all fire authorities were put into the scene, fire extinguishing was delayed as the fire spread faster. The current scale of the disaster has not been confirmed.
This wildfire occurred after Easter Island was blocked by novel coronavirus pneumonia for more than two years and was opened to tourists again in August this year for three months. Easter Island, which is visited by 160,000 tourists every year, has recently resumed two flights per day.
Easter Island has a total area of about 163.6 square kilometers. Among the Aboriginal peoples is also known as Rapanui. 1722 Dutch Explorer Jacob Logiwen sailed on an expedition on the South Pacific Ocean and suddenly discovered a piece of land. He thought he had discovered a new continent and quickly landed, but only after he got ashore he realized it was an island. It happened to be Easter . Therefore, the name of the island became Easter Island. In 1888, the Chilean government sent someone to take over the island. It was coincidental that it happened to be Easter . It was once used to raise sheep, but now the island name has been changed to Rapanui and protected it as a historical site.
