In the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles from anywhere, Easter Island, is the world's most remote island.

Even if you know nothing about this island you will probably be familiar with the iconic Moai, stone heads up to 20m tall, that are to be found all over the island. The Moia and the people who put them there have been the subject of a plethora of theories and television documentaries that have attempted to explain the origin of the people and why they built the Moia.

The Norwegian archaeologist Thor Heyerdahl spent years studying the island and excavating ruins to try to unravel the mysteries of the island. Most famously he built and sailed the Kon Tiki, a raft made of reeds, from Peru to Easter Island in an attempt to demonstrate his theory that the island had been populated from South America.

Modern research using DNA samples taken from human remains on the island have conclusively shown that the people who arrived and settled on Easter Island, were of Polynesian decent not South American. This outcome is hardly surprising given the fact that the Polynesian peoples possessed the seafaring skills to populate many other remote islands throughout the Pacific, from New Zealand to Hawaii.

A trip to Easter Island is a truly unforgettable experience and if you should ever visit this mysterious place and contemplate the infinite ocean that surrounds it, it is hard not to ask yourself the questions that visitors have been asking for centuries.

Andrew Chaundler
http://www.optimundo.com/
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Picture: Easter Island Chile