All the glory of Easter Island
Famous stone heads destroyed in bushfires
10/07/2022 11:31 am
Mourning for world-renowned cultural heritage: Hundreds of stone colossi die in devastating fire near Rano Raraku volcano on Easter Island. As most of the moai are badly charred, the island has little hope of saving the thousand-year-old figures.
A number of world-famous Maori stone statues were destroyed in the Easter Island bushfires. Chile’s Deputy Minister of Culture, Carolina Perez, tweeted that about 100 hectares of land, including several giant stone heads known as moai, had been destroyed by the fire.
According to them, the most severe damage occurred in the area of Rano Raraku Volcano, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where hundreds of moai are located. “The damage is irreversible,” Easter Island Mayor Pedro Edmonds told local media.
Easter Island is 3,500 kilometers west of the coast of Chile. It only reopened to tourism in early August after a two-year corona ban. Before the start of the corona pandemic, the island had 160,000 visitors a year.
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