A bush fire has charred several of Easter Island’s world-famous stone statues. Around 100 hectares of land were affected by the fire, including several of the giant stone heads known as Moai, Chilean Deputy Minister of Culture Carolina Perez wrote on Twitter on Thursday (local time). According to them, the most severe damage was in the area of the Rano Raraku volcano, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where hundreds of Moai are located.
“The damage cannot be undone,” Easter Island Mayor Pedro Edmunds told local media.
Easter Island is remote about 3,500 kilometers west of the Chilean coast. It was not until the beginning of August that it was reopened to tourism after a two-year corona ban. Before the start of the corona pandemic, the island had around 160,000 visitors a year.
