Easter Island, called Rapa Nui by its Polynesian inhabitants, sits over 3,500 kilometres from the nearest populated landmass, making it one of the most remote inhabited places on earth, a fact that makes its nearly 900 monumental moai statues, carved by Polynesian settlers between roughly 1250 and 1500 AD, all the more extraordinary as a feat of ancient engineering and cultural ambition.
The Moai
Rano Raraku, the quarry where nearly all the moai were carved, remains littered with statues in every stage of completion, some still partially embedded in the volcanic rock, a uniquely direct window into the carving process itself, since work here seems to have stopped abruptly.
Ahu Tongariki, with fifteen restored moai standing in a row facing inland, is the island's most dramatic single sight, particularly at sunrise when the statues are silhouetted against the eastern sky.
Rapa Nui Culture
The exact reasons the moai-building era ended, and the ecological and social collapse that followed deforestation of the island, remain debated among archaeologists, a sobering case study frequently cited in discussions of resource management and societal collapse.
Orongo, a ceremonial village on the island's southwestern tip, relates to the later 'birdman' cult that succeeded moai-building as the island's dominant spiritual practice, petroglyphs here depict the ritual competition to retrieve the first sooty tern egg of the season from a nearby islet.
Recommended Stay · Easter Island · Hanga Roa
Explora Rapa Nui
An all-inclusive lodge with guided excursions to the island's key archaeological sites, set on a headland with ocean views near Hanga Roa.
