Mysterious stone statues

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Our first encounter with the stone statues, moai, on Easter Island took place at Ahu Vinapu at the north coast of the island. Typically arranged on a platform called ahu there are several moai in a row that faces the land, looking inwards from the sea. As it often is with iconic landmarks that you have seen many times on (arranged) photographs, reality can be a little disappointing. Our fist thought: This is just a pile of stones! The moai here were laying on their faces, some had even moved away from the ahu.

We learned later that all moai have been pushed from their platforms during warfares between the island's clans. The moai cult then stopped and the statues that stand upright today are restored.

After a less convincing experience with a guide we rented our own car and made three trips to see all of the important sites. There are ahus along the whole coast but not all are in good shape. The difficulty is to discriminate the one you are looking for from the rest. Everything looks kind of the same from the road.

Our absolute favourite was the Ahu Tongariki with 15 restored moai on a 200 metre ahu. The largest one is 8 metres high and one has the original hair in red stone put back on his head (they are no hats but aristocratic hairstyles). The whole area is situated on a plane at the coast with a steep volcanic wall on one side. Scattered over the plane you see the remains of houses and gardens so it is easy to imagine how the moai overlooked the village. A truly impressing place!

Another stunning site is the so called nursery at Ranu Raraku. Here the statues were carved out of the mountain wall. There are more than 900 moai on the island but only 500 of them reached their intended destination, the rest has never left the production site. Ranu Raraku is an old volcano and said to be of "soft" stone, certainly suitable for the carving. When the moai cult stopped the workers literally dropped their tools and left. Therefore we could walk amongst moai in all production stages. Some were just started, only the face carved and the body still part of the solid rock. Some were nearly done and already moved some metres down the mountain side.

After we have seen all the important sites and heard the basic information we are all fascinated by the phenomenon. The moai belong to the partly unknown ancient Rapa Nui culture and keep their secrets.

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