Motu Nui is the largest of the

islets An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and ...

located off the southwestern coast of

Easter Island Easter Island (, ; , ) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, ...

(Rapa Nui) and constitutes the westernmost point of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. Covering an area of 3.9

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

s, it is the summit of a submerged volcanic mountain that rises over 2,000 meters from the seafloor. Motu Nui is one of the five satellite islets of Easter Island and is notable for being among the three closest landmasses to

Point Nemo In geography, a pole of inaccessibility is the farthest (or most difficult to reach) location in a given landmass, sea, or other topographical feature, starting from a given boundary, relative to a given criterion. A geographical criterion of i ...

, the oceanic pole of inaccessibility. The other two are Ducie Island (

Pitcairn Islands The Pitcairn Islands ( ; Pitkern: '), officially Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, are a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean that form the sole British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the ...

) and Maher Island (

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

Historically, Motu Nui played a central role in the '' Tangata manu'' ("bird-man") cult, a religious tradition that developed after the

moai Moai or moʻai ( ; ; ) are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island, Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in eastern Polynesia between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but h ...

-building period and before the widespread adoption of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

in the 1860s. Each year, representatives (''Hopu'') from different clans would swim to Motu Nui to await the arrival of the ''manutara'' ( sooty tern). The first Hopu to retrieve an egg would return to Easter Island and present it to his patron at Orongo, a ceremonial village on the rim of the Rano Kau crater. The sponsor would then be declared the ''Tangata manu'' and hold ritual authority for one year. The ritual was hazardous, with frequent fatalities from shark attacks or falls. The victorious clan gained exclusive rights to collect seabird eggs and chicks from the islets. The last known competition took place in 1888. The Routledge expedition of 1914 conducted a scientific survey of Motu Nui and recorded six species of nesting seabirds in addition to the sooty tern. They also documented two caves formerly used during the ''Tangata manu'' ritual, one for sheltering the Hopu and another that housed ''Moai Maea'', a small moai known as "The Boundary of the Land", which had already been removed to the

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. Nearby islets include Motu Kao Kao, a sea stack rising approximately 20 meters

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

, and Motu Iti. All three are home to

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

populations. The name ''Motu Nui'' means "large island" in the

Rapa Nui language Rapa Nui or Rapanui (, Rapa Nui: , Spanish: ), also known as Pascuan () or ''Pascuense'', is an Eastern Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family. It is spoken on Easter Island, also known as ''Rapa Nui''. The island is home to ...

, where ''motu'' means "islet". Today, the islets are visited via small boat tours departing from Hanga Roa, the island's main town. The waters surrounding Motu Nui are a popular destination for

scuba diving Scuba diving is a Diving mode, mode of underwater diving whereby divers use Scuba set, breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface breathing gas supply, and therefore has a limited but variable endurance. The word ''scub ...

, known for their clear visibility and marine biodiversity. Shark populations, once more abundant, have declined significantly due to

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing Fish stocks, fish stock), resu ...

References

* Katherine Routledge: The mystery of Easter island, Adventures Unlimited Pr 1998, (in

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and in

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(reprint of original book from 1919)

External links

Patrick C. McCoy: The Place of Near-Shore Islets in Easter Island Prehistory. The Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 87, No. 3 (September 1978), pp. 193-214
{{coord, 27, 12, 05, S, 109, 27, 10, W, type:landmark, display=title Islands of Easter Island Uninhabited islands of Chile