Easter Island

Easter Island, easternmost island of Polynesia in the South Pacific, about 2,000 mi (3,200 km) west of Chile, which annexed the island in 1888. This small, grassy, volcanic island features hundreds of colossal stone statues up to 40 ft (12 m) high, carved and raised on burial platforms, which have been the subject of much speculation by the explorer Thor Heyerdahl and others. Easter Island was discovered on Easter Sunday, 1722, by the Dutch admiral Jacob Roggeveen.