One of the worlds most famous yet least visited archaeological sites,Easter Island is a small, hilly, now treeless island of volcanic origin.Located in the Pacific Ocean at 27 degrees south of the equator and some 2200 miles 3600 kilometers off the coast of Chile, it is considered to be the world’s most remote inhabited island. Sixtythree square miles in size and with three extinct volcanoes the tallest rising to 1674 feet, the island is, technically speaking, a single massive volcano rising over ten thousand feet from the Pacific Ocean floor. The oldest known traditional name of the island is Te Pito o Te Henua, meaning ‘The Center or Navel of the World.’ In the 1860’s Tahitian sailors gave the island the name Rapa Nui, meaning ‘Great Rapa,’ due to its resemblance to another island in Polynesia called Rapa Iti, meaning ‘Little Rapa’. The island received its most well known current name, Easter Island, from the Dutch sea captain Jacob Roggeveen who became the first European to visit Easter Sunday, April 5, 1722.

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