The Marquesas Islands
One of the remotest spots on the planet, the tiny Marquesas Islands lie between 400 and 600 miles south of the equator and around 1,000 miles northeast of Tahiti. First discovered by the Spanish in 1595, they were later made famous by Captain James Cook, and then immortalized by novelist Herman Melville and the paintings of Paul Gauguin. Though they once boasted a population in excess of 100,000, disease and conflict have taken their toll on the native Polynesian people over the centuries, with smallpox wiping out vast numbers in the 19th century. A recent census showed just over 8,000 inhabitants, though the birth rate was at least on the rise. Shrouded in almost constant cloud, the wild and rugged Marquesas Islands remain hauntingly beautiful despite this, serene and mysterious, isolated and perhaps a little eerie.
If you find yourself on these distant islands, look out for the ruins of great stone platforms and terraces – these are all that remains of a once powerful people, and they serve as testimony to a culture that no loner exists.
If you find yourself on these distant islands, look out for the ruins of great stone platforms and terraces – these are all that remains of a once powerful people, and they serve as testimony to a culture that no loner exists.
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