Apparently officially recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records, here in San Alfonso del Mar in Chile you can hardly miss the world’s largest swimming pool!

This absolutely immense pool is 1 kilometre long and covers eight hectares – that’s 80,000 square metres! Furthermore, it contains an incredible 250,000 cubic metres of water.

And yes, it’s right beside the beach, and no more than a stone’s throw… from the sea.

Thanks to Bene via nubricks.com

(It’s Island Week 2 here at GSS, which means we’ll mostly be posting about Islands. For about a week.)

Located in the south eastern Pacific Ocean, almost four thousand kilometers from continental Chile, Easter Island – or locally Rapa Nui – is one of the world’s most isolated inhabited islands¹, as well as one of the world’s most fascinating archaeological sites.

Photo of Rano Raraku Moai from mappic.org

The human history of Easter Island probably began somewhere between AD 300 and 1200 when people from the islands west of here landed with the tools, animals and provisions to stay for good. Although only 171 km² in area, at the time Easter Island had extensive forests, and the volcanic craters held drinking water – which is an important feature on an island with no rivers.

Rano Kau volcano (Picture)

Somewhere between AD 1000 and 1500, the Rapanui began a period of frantic construction of enormous stone statues – the Moai, for which Easter Island is world famous today. These enigmatic figures represented the islander’s deified ancestors, and were mostly placed near the coast, with their backs to the sea.

Moai of Ahu Nau Nau, Anakena Beach (Picture)

Moai are hewn from the island’s volcanic rock², and the largest Moai erected was almost 10 metres high and weighed 75 tonnes; their production and transportation is considered a remarkable accomplishment.

Moai of Ahu Tongariki (Picture)

887 Moai have been identified to date, however only a quarter ever made it to one of the coastal Ahu platforms – nearly half of all Moai remain at a single site called Rano Raraku, the volcanic crater where 95% were originally carved. The landscape is littered with 397 Moai – some half-finished, some semi-submerged in the earth through erosion, and others never even detached from the rock.³

Rano Raraku crater, Rano Raraku Moai (Picture)

By the time explorers arrived here in the 18th Century, the forests of the island had completely disappeared. It’s unknown whether or not the Rapanui had used all the trees in the construction of the Moai, or if some other ecological factor was involved, but either way the islanders were now trapped – there was no longer any wood available for making seaworthy canoes.

After this things began to go rapidly downhill for the inhabitants of Easter Island. There followed a period of tribal wars, raids by Peruvian slavers, epidemics of European diseases, and the conversion of the entire island into a sheep farm. During this period much Rapa Nui culture was lost forever, nearly all of the Moai were deliberately toppled (probably by warring tribal factions), and by the late 19th century only 111 of the indigenous people remained alive.

Somehow, against all the odds, today there are several thousand descendants of the surviving 111 Rapanui living on Easter Island – which now has sustainable forestry and the longest runway in Polynesia (having been extended to function as an emergency landing place for the U.S. Space Shuttle). The Moai have returned too – many have been re-erected on their Ahus around the island and one has even been given new eyes.

Moai at Ahu Akivi, unusual in not being on the coast, and facing towards the sea (Picture)

Read more about Easter Island and Moai at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Josh, Adam, Reinhold and Didier.

Here in Chile’s Atacama Desert, there are many examples of ancient Incan geoglyphs, similar to the Nazca Lines in neighbouring Peru, but spread over a much wider area.

In the northern desert the Chiza geoglyphs were made by carefully arranging the dark stones on the light sand to create figures of humans, birds and animals. In contrast to the Nazca lines, of of these geoglyphs are on hillsides, and can therefore be seen from ground level – in fact a car has stopped by the road here to admire these ones.

Further south, we find the geoglyphs at Tiliviche – which is a huge drawing of a whole herd of Llamas being rounded up by a fat guy and a skinny guy (Llamas were used by the Incas as a system of transportation).

Moving further south again, we find the Pintados geoglyphs. Although these figures of men, beasts, birds and geometric shapes are comparitively small, there are around 400 individual geoglyphs here! Interestingly it seems that these were all made by clearing the dark rocks to create the image.

Finally, the most impressive geoglyph in Chile has got to be the totally brilliant Atacama Giant, which at 80 metres, claims to be the world’s largest prehistorical anthropomorphic figure (of course, if you’re a regular reader you’ll know to consider these “world’s largest” claims carefully…)

There’s other shapes and figures here too, but personally I think this “gigantic cat-looking-thing” is one of the best geoglyphs anywhere

Here’s some more info on the Atacama Giant, the Inca Empire, and um, Llamas.

Thanks to Mauricio Aguilar, Yannick Lemieux, Patrick and Juan Arancibia.