A fire has damaged some of the sacred carved Harlan Fisk Stone figures on Easter Island . As the extent of the terms is still being tallied , there is parole that the fervency might have been commence designedly .
The “ serious fire ” sprung around the Rano Raraku vent and engulfed up to 100 hectares ( 247 acres ) of the Rapa Nui Natural Park , grant toCarolina Pérez Dattari , Undersecretary of Cultural Heritage at Chile ’s Ministry of Culture . She added that an unknown number of the island ’s notable carved stone physical body , known as moai , have been coal by the brilliance .
Speaking tolocal medium , Easter Island mayor , Pedro Edmunds Paoa , said he believed the fire was “ not an accident , ” adding “ all the fires on Rapa Nui are because of human beings . ” He also blames interior authorities in Chile for not financing a fire prevention architectural plan for this “ open - air museum . ”
“ The damage because of the flaming ca n’t be undone , ” Edmunds Paoareportedlyadded .
“ The cracking of an original and emblematical stone can not be recovered , no matter how many million of euro or dollars are put into it , ” he remain .
The aboriginal name of Easter Island is Rapa Nui . It ’s found some 3,500 kilometers ( 2,175 miles ) off the west seashore of Chile in the south Pacific Ocean and is considered one of the most distant inhabited islands in the world . It ’s best known for its iconic 4 - metre - magniloquent ( 13 - foot ) statue that werecarved by early Polynesian inhabitantson the diminutive volcanic island over 500 year ago .
Since there ’s no written chronicle of the island , it ’s undecipherable what the statues make up . However , the statues are often interpreted as bear court to the ancestors of the island .
archaeologist havedocumented887 of the massive statues , but there are potential to be 100 more on the island .
One of the moai can be found over 13,000 km ( 8,077 miles ) away within the British Museum in London . Needless to say , the Rapa Nui citizenry consider that the moai was stolen andhave calledfor its return .
