9781422286401

Land of the Andes 11

Pacific Oceans—the Strait of Magellan, Beagle Channel, and Drake Passage. The most outstanding physical feature of slender Chile is the massive, almost impassable wall of the Andes Mountains, which extend the entire length of the country from the Bolivian plateau in the north to Tierra del Fuego in the south. The Andes mountain range, which contains more than 50 active volcanic peaks, is still rising. Chile lies in a zone of geologic The stone statues of Easter Island (called moai ) have fascinated visitors for hundreds of years. On average the nearly 900 moai stand 13 feet (4 meters) high and weigh 14 tons, though the largest erected statue is nearly 33 feet (9.8 meters) high and weighs 82 tons. The moai were carved from volcanic rock between 1400 and 1600 CE by the indigenous people of Easter Island, Polynesians who called themselves Rapa Nui.