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Just 13 miles long and seven miles wide, |
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Easter Island rises like a fortress from the waves, surrounded by thousands of miles of ocean in every direction. |
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People first arrived here less than 1,000 years ago. |
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Most of what we know about their civilisation can only be pieced together from the relics that remain. |
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It is a strange and desolate place. |
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The most striking features in this bleak and windswept landscape are the hundreds of giant stone statues, known as moai, |
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thought to be carved in the likeness of chiefs or ancestors. |
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It's difficult to believe that an advanced culture capable of carving and erecting these monoliths grew up in such a barren landscape. |
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The truth is, it didn't. |
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When those first colonisers discovered Easter Island, this was a paradise. |
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These empty cliffs were once home to the largest seabird colonies in the South Pacific. |
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