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Article: Easter Island: enigma of the stone statues: according to modern science, the mysteries of Easter Island and its brooding statues have been solved. Alexander Henriksen and Matjaz Krivic visit this tiny speck in the Pacific and find that its riddles live on.(Cover Story)
- Article from:
- Geographical
- Article date:
- March 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Circle Publishing Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The stench of horse dung greets photographer Matjaz Krivic and I as we leave Easter Island's tiny Mataveri air terminal. Dozens of neatly groomed and saddled steeds stand in the sizzling-hot airport car park, waiting to carry home locals returning to the world's most remote inhabited island. The closest neighbour to this 117-square-kilometre dot in the sea is Pitcairn Island, 1,800 kilometres away; the nearest mainland is Chile, 3,700 kilometres to the east.
We climb aboard a pickup truck and are soon heading towards the island's capital, a cloud of rust-coloured volcanic dust billowing in our wake. On first impression, the beautiful volcanic landscape is even ...