<Tr> <Th> Area </Th> <Td> 6,666 ha </Td> </Tr> <P> Easter Island (Rapa Nui: Rapa Nui, Spanish: Isla de Pascua) is a Chilean island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania . Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, 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 . </P> <P> Polynesian people most likely settled on Easter Island sometime between 700 and 1100 AD and created a thriving and industrious culture as evidenced by the island's numerous enormous stone moai and other artifacts . However, human activity, the introduction of the Polynesian rat and overpopulation led to gradual deforestation and extinction of natural resources which severely weakened the Rapa Nui civilization . By the time of European arrival in 1722, the island's population had dropped to 2,000--3,000 from an estimated high of approximately 15,000 just a century earlier . European diseases and Peruvian slave raiding in the 1860s further reduced the Rapa Nui population, to a low of only 111 inhabitants in 1877 . </P> <P> Easter Island is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world . The nearest inhabited land (around 50 residents in 2013) is Pitcairn Island, 2,075 kilometres (1,289 mi) away; the nearest town with a population over 500 is Rikitea, on the island of Mangareva, 2,606 km (1,619 mi) away; the nearest continental point lies in central Chile, 3,512 kilometres (2,182 mi) away . </P>

The history and culture of easter island is most closely tied to