Easter Island is part of Great Britain. Where is Easter Island? Who discovered Easter Island
Mysterious moai statues Rapa Nui stand in silence, but speak more eloquently than any words about the achievements of their creators. Stone blocks from which statues in the form of a head and torso are carved, with an average height of 4 meters and a weight of 14 tons. The effort to build these monuments and move them around the island must have been considerable, but no one knows exactly why the Rapa Nui people set themselves such a task. Most scientists suspect that the moai were created to honor ancestors, chiefs or other important figures, however, there is no oral or written evidence of this on the island, so one cannot be sure. Polynesian society flourished in this unique place after a hardy people guided a fleet of wooden outrigger canoes to this tiny speck in the vastness Pacific Ocean. Here, in isolation approximately 3,700 kilometers west of South America and 1,770 kilometers from the closest neighboring island, Rapa Nui has developed an excellent architectural and artistic culture. This culture reached its zenith during the 16th century, when the Rapa Nui carved and installed approximately 900 moai throughout the island. 
It is believed that the decline Rapa Nui followed because environmental disaster, which they themselves created. It is not yet clear when the islands were first settled; Estimates range from 800 AD. to 1,200. It's also not clear how quickly the island's ecosystem was destroyed - but a major factor is the reduction of millions of giant palms to clear fields and make fires. It is possible that Polynesian rats arriving with human settlers ate enough seeds to help destroy the trees. 
Either way, the loss of trees exposed the island's rich volcanic soils to severe erosion. When Europeans arrived in 1722, they found the island sparsely populated and largely barren. Today, many tourists come here, mainly to visit the quarry Rano Raraku volcano, where the stones came from to create almost all the moai on the island. Meanwhile, all over the island, many moai are gradually being transformed from priceless figures into ordinary pieces of rock. Volcanic rocks are subject to weathering and great efforts are needed to preserve the heritage Rapa Nui in their current, impressive form.
How to get to Easter Island
It is a miracle that once upon a time, the Polynesian people were able to get to Easter Island. However, now it is much easier to do this; you just need to buy a plane ticket. When is the best time to visit Easter Island?
The high season on Easter Island is the southern hemisphere summer - from January to March. Although in winter it is also quite comfortable here, the average temperature is about 22 degrees, rarely dropping to 14 degrees. So, you can quite pleasantly spend time here at any time of the year. If you don’t want to meet a lot of tourists, then come in the off-season.How to get around the island
Cars, motorcycles and mountain bikes can be rented and this good ways for visitors to explore the island's scattered archaeological sites. While most people visit Easter Island to explore its history and culture, the island is also home to excellent diving, surfing, and enticing beaches.
Easter Islands amaze, surprise and delight. Dormant volcanoes, sparse vegetation, a vast ocean and stone statues on the coast made of pressed volcanic ash in the form of a human head with a body to the waist and a height of about 20 meters. Some have red stone caps on their heads.
The Easter Islands are considered the only place in Polynesia whose inhabitants had their own written language. Most modern scientists argue that the writing of local residents originated on this island and was not brought from anywhere.
How did it happen that a people about whom no one knew, knew, or heard for many millennia, had such a developed civilization that they could create their own chronicles, as well as statues of such quality that they did not fall apart under the hot tropical sun and could survive to this day. The mystery of Easter Island has not yet been fully revealed.
How exactly Easter Island appeared is still not completely clear. Scientists put forward different hypotheses - one more incredible than the other. For example, according to one version, Easter Island is a part of Lemuria, which was the ancestral home of all humanity, and for various reasons was flooded with water. Another hypothesis says that this island is all that remains of the famous Atlantis. Both versions can be confirmed by the myths of the islanders about the god Uvok, whom people angered so much that he split the earth with his fiery staff.
Tourists often ask questions about where Easter Island is, how to get there and who inhabits it. In any case, Easter Island now belongs to Chile and is considered the most remote inhabited island in the world from the continent. The closest place where people live to Pitcairn Island is just over two thousand kilometers away, and three and a half to the mainland coast of Chile.
The sights of Easter Island were discovered and discovered by the Dutch traveler Jacobson Roggeveen in 1722. Since this event happened on Easter Sunday, it didn’t take long to think about what to name the island. Although it is still called differently. For example, James Cook called it Teapi or Vaihu. Locals call it Rapa Nui (Great Rapa) - a name of Polynesian origin, as it was called by sailors from Tahiti.
Previously, when talking about the island, the natives mentioned names that translated from Rapa Nui meant “Navel of the Earth” or “Eyes looking into the sky.”
Easter Island itself is shaped like a right triangle with sides of 16, 18 and 24 km. In the corner of each are located extinct volcanoes, always attracting the attention of tourists. Therefore, it is not surprising that the island itself is of volcanic origin.
The vegetation here is extremely sparse. A tropical forest, which previously covered the entire Easter Island, disappeared from the face of the earth due to irrational human activity, and this moment(according to botanists) there are no more than 30 plant species on the island.
There are suggestions that several centuries ago (in the 16th-17th centuries) the island was inhabited by 10 to 15 thousand people. Due to constant wars among themselves, flourishing cannibalism, as well as the environmental disaster that befell the island, even before the arrival of the first Europeans, the population was reduced to three thousand. There is also a version that the island was inhabited in several stages by two different cultures. One culture was from Polynesia, the other from South America, possibly from Peru.
After Easter Island was discovered, some of the locals were enslaved and taken to Peru, while others died due to new diseases and epidemics. When the territory came under Chilean rule in 1888, Easter Island was found to have only 178 inhabitants. According to the latest census, by 2012 the number of inhabitants of the island had increased, and at that time the island was inhabited by almost 6 thousand inhabitants.
Stone sculptures
Easter Island gained its fame primarily thanks to ancient, mysterious statues made of volcanic stone, which the natives believe contain the supernatural power of their ancestors. Peculiar idols are another secret of Easter Island.
The Easter Island idols were made over three centuries, from 1200 to 1500. (there is an earlier date - the fourth century, but few adhere to this version), after which their production abruptly stopped. Researchers say that it looks as if people have been developing their skills for centuries, putting on a conveyor belt the production and transportation of Moai from stone - and suddenly, in an instant, they abandoned everything and left, leaving behind the blanks of sculptures, tools that can still be found in the found workshops, and leaving the finished Moai lying along the roads along which they were brought down to the coast.
The Easter Island idols are about 20 meters high and represent a human head (some are wearing a red stone hat) with a torso. At the same time, the Moai look deeper into the island.
The question of how the sculptures appeared here arose as soon as James Cook and his team visited the Easter Islands and first saw huge Moai made of stone on the coast, and next to them the natives who had neither tools nor even their own housing and clothing.
It is worth noting that this mystery is still unsolved, and there are several versions about how they arose.
- Huge statues of Easter Island were created by representatives of ancient civilizations. If we adhere to the theory that Rapa Nui island- these are either the remnants of Lemuria or Atlantis, it is unlikely that anyone will be surprised by the fact that the ancient masters, who were extremely high level development, had the opportunity to create masterpieces of this level.
- Aliens. There are people who adhere to this version, and it was even mentioned in Erich Däniken’s film “Memories of the Future.”
- The statues were created by local inhabitants. In the crater of one of the volcanoes, researchers discovered traces of a workshop in which Moai were carved using stone axes and chisels. To confirm this version, the world famous researcher Thor Heyerdahl conducted an experiment in the mid-20th century - he persuaded local residents to make a statue. In just a couple of days they managed to carve a small figure out of stone, extremely reminiscent ancient sculpture. After that, they transported it to the coast, swinging it with ropes and alternately pushing forward first one, then the other shoulder.
The traveler was not able to completely solve the mystery of the statues, since this method was only suitable for small statues, and how the Moai weighing 50 tons was moved remained a mystery. He also could not understand how they put hats on the colossi, each of which weighed about two tons.
How the colossi were transported. Versions
Local residents are still convinced that the Moai moved independently. According to one hypothesis, local priests forced them to move, according to another, they were revived by a witch who lived near the volcano. And they stopped carving the statues for a banal reason - the stonemasons ate a lobster in secret from the witch and did not treat the witch. She got angry and in anger knocked over all the Moai that at that time managed to reach the coast.
There is another version, already put forward by scientists. During special research, it was discovered that at the time the Polynesians appeared on Easter Island, there was a real jungle here - growing great amount trees, bushes and herbs, including palm trees, which are now completely gone. These trees were about 25 meters high and their diameter was approximately 180 cm.
It was the long trunks of these palm trees, completely devoid of branches, that were ideal for making huge pies out of them and transporting the Moai to their destination. Also, with the help of wooden beams, they could move the Moai to the shore.
Writing
In addition to the statues, Easter Island is also famous for the fact that it is the only Polynesian island whose inhabitants had their own written language. On special wooden tablets (kohau rongorongo) they wrote down various legends, myths, and songs in hieroglyphs. Some records have survived to this day - these are 20 tablets and 11 texts (some records are repeated).
In total, 14 thousand hieroglyphs were discovered on the existing tablets, each with from 2 to 2.3 thousand images.
The ancient inhabitants made tablets from dark shiny Toromiro wood, after which they carved images of lizards, toads, turtles, stars, spirals, etc. on them; you can even recognize a person with wings.
Absolutely all researchers agree that this letter originated here - despite the fact that it is hieroglyphic, it is still significantly different from classical signs. At the same time, the language in which records were kept in former times differs significantly from the modern one. spoken language local residents. Therefore, when scientists tried to decipher the records with the help of the natives, they failed.
Researchers struggled for a long time to solve the hieroglyphs, some even managed to partially solve them, until the American scientist Stephen Fisher made a discovery quite by accident. Deciding just to collect complete information about a writing unknown to anyone, he was able to read what was written and get to the truth.
It turned out that most of the records tell about the creation of all things. It turned out that the tablets that have reached us are not equivalent in terms of information value - 15 of them contain 85% of all texts of the ancient language, plus one is a calendar.
It was not possible to decipher absolutely all the surviving tablets, since some of them are so unique that they cannot yet be deciphered. Therefore, research ancient civilization are definitely not finished yet, and the history of Easter Island will yet be fully revealed.
Hititeairagi, Rapa Nui, Te Pito o te whenua, Tekaowhangoaru are all other names for the area we know as Easter Island. For most people, Easter Island is associated with something mysterious - and no wonder: it is famous for the huge stone statues lined up along the shore. They look with drawn eyes into the ocean, and this look is both creepy and mesmerizing. One of the main questions is how did these 10-meter idols get there? - still remains unresolved. Tourists flock here in the hope of unraveling the mystery, but return home covered in souvenirs and... without an answer.
Easter Island
How to get there
Easter Island is part of Valparaiso, one of the regions of Chile. There are two ways to get to the island, both of which are expensive. The first one is on a tourist yacht or cruise ship who sometimes come here. You can go to independent travel and in a couple of weeks call at the port.
The second way is by air; there is an airport on the island that accepts flights from the capital of Chile, Santiago, Tahiti and Lima. Flight schedules vary depending on the time of year: for example, from December to March, flights operate only once a week. In other months - twice a week. The flight from Santiago lasts about 5 hours.
Search for flights to Santiago (the closest airport to Easter Island)
Transport
All the attractions of the island are located close to each other, and the territory itself is small. On Easter Island you can take a taxi, bike or rent a car. It is almost impossible to get lost on the island, since there are only two roads.
The average cost of renting a car is from 80 USD per day with a full tank of gasoline. By the way, it is better to refuel completely - this will be difficult to do on the island. Prices on the page are as of September 2018.
Maps of Easter Island
Beaches of Easter Island
There are several beaches on Easter Island, but Anakena is the best choice. Local residents even warn that you can only swim here. On sandy beach there are several cafes, and in general the local landscape is somewhat reminiscent Black Sea coast: there are stalls with cold water on the beach, natives are selling sweets and other snacks, the smell of barbecue is in the air. Only instead of the sea there is an ocean.
Cuisine and restaurants
There are quite a few small cafes on the island where you can have an inexpensive meal. On the menu you should choose seafood dishes, such as soup or tuna steak. In general, the steaks here are very good - made from meat and fish, with potatoes and herbs. Local beer is soft and very pleasant.
Some restaurants are built very close to the water. They stand on stilts, and the owners of the establishment can demolish one of the walls so that visitors can admire the view of the ocean.
Easter Island Hotels
There is only one town on the island where you can stay in a hotel - Hanga Roa. Most tourists prefer mini-hotels rather than chain operators, and yet the cost of living is rather high. The fact is that many goods are imported to the island from the mainland, which increases their price. The most expensive hotel on the island is Explora EN RAPA NUI. There are 30 rooms, a restaurant with an outdoor terrace, a bar, a souvenir boutique, an outdoor swimming pool, a massage parlor, and an outdoor jacuzzi.
One of the ways for island residents to earn money is by renting out apartments. At the airport, each new plane is greeted by a crowd of local residents, vying with each other to offer accommodation in hotels or in their homes.
There is also a camping site on the island - here you can pitch a tent or rent a very simple room for little money, with internet access. To get to the campsite, you need to find a guide at the airport with a sign Mihinoa - that’s the name of the place where you’ll be staying.
The shops
The sale of souvenirs is one of the main sources of income for the islanders. In stores and shops you can buy idols of different sizes, from pocket size to 2-3 meters. The main thing is that you can take this piece of wood out of the country to your homeland. Particularly popular are statues of “kawakawa” - either a person or a ghost - and, of course, magnets, necklaces, beads, hats, headbands, and embroidered shoes.
Entertainment and attractions of Easter Island
Moai
Stone moai are carved from petrified volcanic ash. These are stylized human figures with short bodies and elongated heads. The weight of each idol reaches almost 20 tons. According to local beliefs, they contain the supernatural power of the ancestors of the first king of Easter Island - Hotu Matua.
Moai stand along the coast and look out over the island. Hundreds of books have been written and films have been made about the history of their origin, but there is still no solution. Some believe that they were brought to the island by aliens, others are sure that such statues could only be made by human giants 3-4 meters tall. Another version is that these idols themselves came to the island, but subsequently forgot how to walk and remained here forever. There are about 900 statues on the island, most of them are located near the Rano Raraku volcano.
Volcanoes
The craters of the Rano Kau and Rano Raraku volcanoes are another attraction of Easter Island. It was from the remains of Rano Raraku that the moai were made. Unfinished statues are scattered in the pit of this volcano. The view inside Rano Kau is breathtaking - the crater is filled with rainwater, covered with islands of grass, and the sky is reflected in this giant lake.
Orongo village
The ceremonial village of Orongo is located on the edge of the Rano Kau crater. Ceremonies dedicated to the birdman were once held here. In the village you can find many cobblestones on which images of the god Make-Make and the bird-man are carved.
Hanga Roa Church
This Catholic Church, famous for its wood carvings. Looking at it, it seems that the building itself is carved from wood. Crafts work here, and music services are held on Sundays.
5 things to do on Easter Island:
- At the end of January - beginning of February, visit the unique Tapati festival, which probably has no analogues in the world. It takes place at the end of January or beginning of February. “Tapati” is a cross-section of Easter Island culture, and not an export version, but the real one. The natives sing, dance and measure their strength.
- Ascend to the ceremonial site of Te Pito-te-whenua, whose name means “navel of the earth” in Rapanui.
- Have a romantic picnic in the palm groves of Anakena Bay.
- Come up with your own legend about the moai - and then tell it to the locals. They love to hear versions of how the statues appeared at Easter. They will listen to you carefully, maybe they will write down your story, if it is unique, and place it in the collection of works of tourists.
- Visit the village of Orongo and see numerous petroglyphs with images of bird-men and the god Make-Make. By the way, this island invented its own writing - rongo-rongo, which has not yet been deciphered.
Since those above are already trying to understand why this Moai decided to drown, I answer. Employees of both dive centers in the area said that they tried to take away a particular specimen by ship. But something went wrong and the ship capsized.
This version is quite true because:
- it is really made of stone and is very similar to those that remained on land
- lies at a depth of 28 meters. For the fun of divers, ships and other things are sunk in the area of 15–18 so that they can dive without AOWD
- a lot of idols were taken out. It is quite possible that once again a ton of stone was poorly secured. There are no legends like “The spirit of the stone did not allow us to leave the island.” Just bad luck once again. Dozens of other Moai were removed and are in museums around the world. The most skillfully made one with an ass (almost the only one with this part of the body) is exhibited in the London Museum (I don’t remember which one)
Moai underwater is unusual. But the most surreal and jaw-dropping view is the volcano mountain where these Moai were chiseled out of stone. Seeing multi-ton stone faces scattered at different angles is cool.
The island is nothing at all. The photos above show typical vegetation. The only thing missing is trees; they are still present on this piece of land in some low-lying places. There are no minerals. The sea doesn't shine either.
Why did people decide to settle there about thirteen centuries ago? In fact, the question is different, why did the people who settled there cast off and run into the open ocean? There were no global cataclysms in this area to allow us to talk about an isthmus to the mainland or the presence of other islands a thousand years ago. Just for some unknown reason, one authoritative person said “Let’s rush there” and pointed at ninety degrees to the shore of his homeland. And others said “Come on!” Scientists still don’t know what made the authority lift so many people from their homes and swim to nowhere. But it’s perfectly clear why these people decided to settle on the island of “damn nothing.” It’s very simple - when you’ve traveled a couple of thousand kilometers in boats across the Pacific Ocean (at that time there were no steam engines even in Europe), you’ll be happy with anything.
So, the second wave of immigrants came, who seemed to arrive without women. It is unclear what they were hoping for. But they were lucky - women were in the first wave. And the first migrants shared them in a friendly manner. Everyone lived happily and called themselves Rapa Nui.
But there are few resources, so few that even the handful of people who grazed on this island were not enough. In addition, those who arrived last were slightly underdeveloped. And a paradox occurred: those who came in large numbers became bosses, and those who remained turned into almost powerless guest workers.
I don’t know how guest workers won honor and respect. But the cool ones decided everything like adults. Google suggests that better times About ten thousand people lived on the island. I don’t know how many clans there were, but they definitely existed. And the more developed settlers did not come up with anything better as proof of toughness than riveting idols from stone. The Rano Raraku volcano was adapted for raw materials. If you want honor and respect for your clan, hollow out a stone muzzle weighing several tons and cockroach it into your territory. Whoever has more stone faces is cooler. Each idol symbolizes a connection with the ancestors and endows the clan with mana. When wars happened, enemies tried to plunder as many of the enemy's Moai as possible, thereby demoralizing him.
The second unanswered question is how the Moai were dragged from the volcano. Although the island is small, transporting such cargo requires very compelling reasons and some kind of technology. There was more than enough of the first, but there were problems with the second. I'm not sure that the Rapanui even used horses. Most likely it was dragged by hand. This is where the less developed migrant workers came in handy. Some believe that stone muzzles weighing several tons were rolled on logs, others believe that they rolled from side to side. But somehow they were pushed even to the opposite coast. Although, as the photographs show, there is a lot and even more most of she remained on the hill.
The largest Moai, which was finally dragged to its destination, is five meters high and weighs 75 tons. The largest, which was not completed yet, is about twenty meters high and 270 tons.
The tough ones, by the way, were called long-eared, and migrant workers were called short-eared.
And the latter did not like this state of affairs. They carry Maui, and honor and respect to those who forced them to carry them. The revolution has happened. And although the long-eared ones were developing, the short-eared ones clearly knew life. Whatever one may say, it was necessary to develop not carrying some kind of crap across the entire island, but at least upgrade the stone axes. In general, all or almost all of the long-eared people were dealt with.
This concluded production of Maui. They continued to worship those that had already been installed in holy places, but they stopped bringing new ones. Official version seems to be saying that short-eared people have not matured enough in intelligence to achieve such a crowning achievement of human genius as hollowing out a several-ton muzzle and ramming it five kilometers away. Personally, I think that they just turned on their brains to the fullest and came to the conclusion that in this world, even in their little world, there are much more interesting, and most importantly, much more useful activities.
The short-eared people stopped hammering rocks to boost their self-esteem. The old idols, of course, have not gone away, but either a tsunami will roll in or a volcano will hit you a little. Stone by stone, but gradually the Moai were destroyed, taking mana with them. And besides, all clans cannot remain at the same level of coolness. If we don’t make new Moai, then where will we get additional honor?
And at some point, the veneration of the Moai begins to intertwine with the veneration of the bird-man, something like a demigod or something like that. Old beliefs and gods are not abolished, but gradually move towards rituals and the acquisition of power without material evidence like a block of ten tons. Now the bird-man has become the main one on the island. He is the god's vicegerent and is worshiped as a god. To become one, you must complete the task first on the designated day and hour. To do this, next to the damn nothing of Easter Island there is a fucking nothing in the form of the island of Motu Nui. Apart from stones, there are only nests of sea gulls on it. So, to become a god, you need to go down the very steep rocky slope of the volcano, swim a kilometer to Motu Nui, climb its steep slope, find a sea gull egg and return along the already trodden path with it to present it to the chief priest. Of course, it cannot be broken. Where they put it in order to save it during the return journey, history is silent. Or maybe there was no need to drag it, maybe they took the gentlemen at their word.
Now another confirmation of my theory that the short-eared ones were not so stupid. At least some of them. So, some pretzel managed it. But it is not he who becomes the main one, but the one he represents. Not every shit becomes the main thing, right? Now the one who was represented by the hero-egg finder, well done, he is now a god. He is shaved in all places. including eyebrows. They give a new name. They are renovating the cave dwelling after the previous god. In this cave, the hero's representative will spend the next year, making laws and resolving conflicts. He cannot cook his own food - the priest does it for him. He cannot cut hair or nails, this is also the responsibility of the priest. He can’t let alone talk to anyone, no one has the right to look at him. That is, God lives as a hermit. His only means of communication with the people under his control is the high priest, who conveys the decrees of the bird-man. Not stupid, right? At the same time, every year the priest does not strain for the sake of his title, well, except for jumping, waving the local censer and bringing food to the “overlord” (I doubt that at least one priest himself strained for the sake of cooking). What that pretzel from the cave actually said, even the pretzel himself won’t remember in a year. Even if he remembers, at the time of his communication with other people he will no longer be a god. This means that attacking the high priest is fraught with the loss of your own eggs, and not the bird’s. And cooking is also a good space for action. If the bird-man wanders off the banks, then mix in the necessary drug and that’s it. The gods called to themselves, he was so cool, what else can I say. In the meantime, there are no eggs, I will be in charge here. Well, or fuck off to Motu Nui right now, if that’s what you want, but don’t come back without balls. Are there any birds with eggs? Your problems.
Although in fact the main power was with the military leaders, I believe.
Easter Island (Rapanui) (Pascua, Rapa Nui), a volcanic island in the eastern Pacific Ocean 165.5 square kilometers. Height up to 539 meters. Belongs to Chile. The population is about 2 thousand people. Fishing. Sheep breeding. Remains of the disappeared Polynesian culture (stone sculpture, tablets covered with writings). The administrative center is Hanga Roa. Discovered by the Dutch navigator I. Roggeveen in 1772 on Easter Day.
They say that Easter Island is one of the most secluded places in the world. This tiny island of volcanic origin, no more than 24 kilometers in size, is lost in the Pacific Ocean thousands of miles from the nearest human civilization. It is located 3600 km west of the Chilean city of Valparaiso.
Everything connected with the island is shrouded in mystery. Where did its first inhabitants come from? How did they even discover this island? How and why were more than 600 giant stone statues sculpted?
The first Europeans to set foot on the island on Easter Sunday 1772 were Dutch sailors, who gave the island its name. They discovered that representatives of three different races coexist peacefully on the island. There were blacks, redskins and, finally, completely white people. They behaved very affably and friendly.
The most fascinating and mysterious discovery on Easter Island was still the giant stone statues called local residents moai. Many of them reach a height of 4 to 10 meters and weigh up to 20 tons. Some are even larger, weighing more than 90 tons. They have very large heads with heavy protruding chins, long ears and no legs at all. Some have UshapkiF made of red stone on their heads (they are believed to be leaders deified after their death).
Easter Island photo
Secrets of Easter Island
Easter Island: where is it located?
Easter Island is an island in the South Pacific Ocean, territory of Chile (together with the uninhabited island of Sala y Gomez, it forms the province and commune of Isla de Pascua as part of the Valparaiso region). The local name of the island is Rapa Nui. Area - 163.6 km².
Along with the archipelago, Tristan da Cunha is the most remote inhabited island in the world. The distance to the continental coast of Chile is 3514 km, to Pitcairn Island, the nearest populated area, 2075 km.
Easter Island on the world map
Easter Island: how to get there
There are two ways to get to the island, both of which are expensive. The first is on a tourist yacht or cruise ship, which sometimes come here. You can go on an independent trip and arrive at the port in a couple of weeks.
The second method is air. The island has an airport that accepts flights from the capital of Chile, Santiago, Tahiti and Lima. Flight schedules vary depending on the time of year. For example, from December to March you can fly only once a week. In other months - twice a week. The flight from Santiago lasts about 5 hours.
The only way to get to Easter Island from Russia is by plane. Tickets are not cheap. You can buy from Moscow until Easter with transfers, you can buy from Moscow - St. Petersburg until North America, then to South America, and from there until Easter, you can go straight to South America, and from there until Easter. In any case, you will have to spend money on a ticket. There are also very a good option, when airlines offer special offers and reduce the cost of air tickets by half or even three times.