Rano Kau volcano in Rapa Nui national park - Yann Arthus Bertrand 1

Rano Kau volcano in Rapa Nui national park, Easter Island, Chile (27°11’ S, 109°26’ W).

This volcano located in the southwest of the island last erupted 150 000 to 210 000 years ago. The Pacific Ocean's assaults have carved out high cliffs and turned the volcano into a type of citadel. This is where the Pascuas, the original inhabitants of the island built a village. Traces of this village can still be seen towering above the ocean at 250 m, on the edge of the caldera. They called it Orongo and it was the site of

ceremonies and initiations linked to the Bird Man cult. This cult which succeeded the cult of the giant statues came to an end in the 1860s when almost the whole of the island's population was deported and enslaved, or struck down by illnesses imported by boat crews and missionaries. The Christianisation of the survivors brought an end to this Polynesian culture that had invented a form of writing, rongo-rongo, that no-one can decipher today. At the end of the 19th century, there were only 200 inhabitants. There are now about 4000 people living on the island on a permanent basis with the arrival of new inhabitants, at the start of this XXIth century. Tourism (over 50 000 visitors a year) poses new threats for the island listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995.