Which Pacific island, home to the moai statues, is a World Heritage Site?

Easter Island is the Pacific island, now commonly called Rapa Nui, that is famous for its moai statues and World Heritage status.

The island is a remote Polynesian cultural landscape belonging to Chile. Its Indigenous Rapa Nui people developed a distinctive tradition of monumental sculpture, especially between about the 10th and 16th centuries. The moai represented important ancestors and were placed on ceremonial stone platforms called ahu, often facing inland toward communities.

Rapa Nui National Park was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. The park includes roughly 900 known statues, more than 300 ceremonial platforms, volcanic quarries, caves, petroglyphs, and the ceremonial village of Orongo. Many moai were carved from volcanic tuff at Rano Raraku before being transported across the island.

“Easter Island” is the familiar English name, while “Rapa Nui” is the Indigenous name and the name used in the UNESCO property title. The island should not be confused with Bora Bora, Tahiti, or Fiji: all are Pacific destinations, but none is the island associated with the moai tradition.