Tourists harming mysterious Easter Island?

Travel

Easter Island has only 4,000 inhabitants, and Edmunds said 52,000 tourists visited in 2007, up 20 percent from 2006 and nearly 10 times 1990 levels. Easter Island has been an UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995, but officials attribute the recent spike to last year's New Seven Wonders of the World contest.

Marko Kulju, a Finnish tourist who chipped an earlobe off an ancient Maoi, a stone statue typical from the Chilean Easter Island, leaves a courtroom courtroom in Easter Island, accompanied by a police officer.

Chilean authorities say one of the massive Moai statues, suffered a damage by a visitor. The right earlobe was stolen by a Finnish tourist in Easter Island in March 2008. Marko Kulju, 26, was detained after allegedly stealing a piece of the right earlobe from a Moai.

Settlers arrived from the Marquesas Islands to the north between 400 and 600. Society flourished until about 1680 and Moais probably were constructed to honor tribal leaders. But resources became scarce as the population grew. When islanders cut down all the trees, tribal warfare erupted, leading to cannibalism and the pulling down of the Moai.

The island has 1,524 archaeological sites, including the 887 Moais, of which only about 50 have been restored. Repairing and placing Moais upright can cause them to deteriorate faster since they are more exposed than statues that remain face down or buried.

These are truly fascinating artifacts of one Polynesian civilization. The numerous statues were carved out of volcanic rock between 400 and 1,000 years ago to represent deceased ancestors.

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Marko Kulju, a Finnish tourist who chipped an earlobe off an ancient Maoi, a stone statue typical from the Chilean Easter Island, leaves a courtroom courtroom in Easter Island, accompanied by a police officer.

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