Giant stone statues on Easter Island (13 photos). Easter Island and stone moai statues Stone moai statues Easter island Chile

12.10.2023

Easter Island is the most secluded corner of our planet; it is a small piece of land, which is located in the Pacific Ocean and is 2600 km away from the nearest inhabited island of Pitcair.

The indigenous people call their island Rapa Nui. And it received its world-famous name because it was discovered on Easter Sunday 1722 by the Dutchman Jacob Roggeveen.
The most famous mystery of Easter Island, which researchers have been trying to solve for hundreds of years, is the giant stone statues, moai. These mysterious monoliths were carved from petrified volcanic ash.

There are a total of 887 statues on the island, 397 of them are located near the Rano Raraku volcano, in the crater of which all other moai were made.
Many unfinished statues and even more abandoned axes were also found there, which suggests that work had suddenly stopped due to some serious cataclysm.

There are two types of moai on the island. “Giants” from 10 meters tall, without pukao hats, all of them mainly stand on the slope of the Rano Raraku volcano, up to their necks in sedimentary rocks.

And four-meter-tall “dwarfs”, placed on ahu pedestals along the ocean coast, wearing original headdresses. They look younger than their 10-meter relatives, and their faces are not so long.

Then the theories and legends begin. One of the surviving legends says that once the island was ruled by people with long earlobes. They had short-eared people under their command. At this time, the construction of moai was in full swing, palm forests were mercilessly cut down, until the ecology of the island was brought to its current deplorable state. The population grew, there was nothing to eat, there was not enough wood even to make boats, cannibalism began... In a word, the short-eared people could not stand it and overthrew the elite.

Most scientists agree with this version of the decline of the era of the mysterious creators of giant stone statues. Some even add details to the overall picture. Thus, it is believed that the short-eared commoners were immigrants from Polynesia, and the long-eared elite were travelers from South America, who, having arrived on the island around 800, were somehow able to seize power over the aborigines for many years.

A scientific explanation has also been found for the many abandoned axes in the Rano Raraku crater. Experts believe that these are used tools. And since it is much easier to make a new stone tool than to sharpen an old one, the ancient craftsmen threw away their old axes. There have been quite a few of them over the course of hundreds of years.

And the unfinished idols remained that way because, while carving them out of relatively soft volcanic tuff, the craftsmen stumbled upon harder rocks that they were unable to overcome.

But how were the stone giants delivered to the right place? Local residents cannot say anything definite about this, except that the statues walked on their own. They even have a word in their language that means moving slowly without using their legs. But what they meant is unknown.

And then the theory of waddling vertical rotation movement appeared. This is also how heavy barrels and cylinders are moved. Successfully conducted field tests of this method put everything in its place: with the help of ropes and short wooden levers, the moai confidently “stepped” forward.

Easter Island idols- giant stone heads decorating the entire island.

The small Easter Island in the South Pacific Ocean, belonging to Chile, is one of the most mysterious corners of our planet. Hearing this name, you immediately think of the cult of birds, the mysterious writings of Kohau Rongorongo and the Cyclopean stone platforms of Ahu. But the most important attraction of the island can be called the moai.

Moai - the statues of Easter Island

There are a total of 997 statues on Easter Island. Most of them are placed quite chaotically, but some are lined up in rows. The appearance of stone idols is peculiar, and Easter Island statues cannot be confused with anything else.
For example, there is nothing like it.

Huge heads on puny bodies, faces with characteristic powerful chins and facial features as if carved with an ax - all these are moai statues.

Moai reach a height of five to seven meters. There are some specimens that are ten meters tall, but there are only a few of them on the island. Despite these dimensions, the weight statues on Easter Island on average does not exceed 5 tons. Such low weight is due to the source material.

To create the statue, they used volcanic tuff, which is much lighter than basalt or some other heavy stone. This material is closest in structure to pumice, somewhat reminiscent of a sponge and crumbles quite easily.

Easter Island idols and the first Europeans

In general, there are many secrets in the history of Easter Island. Its discoverer, Captain Juan Fernandez, fearing competitors, decided to keep his discovery, made in 1578, a secret, and some time later he accidentally died under mysterious circumstances. Although whether what the Spaniard found was Easter Island is still unclear.

144 years later, in 1722, the Dutch admiral Jacob Roggeveen stumbled upon Easter Island, and this event happened on the day of Christian Easter. So, quite by accident, the island of Te Pito o te Henua, which translated from the local dialect means the Center of the World, turned into Easter Island.

In his notes, the admiral indicated that the aborigines held ceremonies in front of stone heads, lit fires and fell into a trance-like state, swaying back and forth.

What the moai were for the islanders was never determined, but most likely the stone sculptures served as idols. Researchers also suggest that the stone sculptures could be statues of deceased ancestors.

It is interesting that Admiral Roggeveen and his squadron not only sailed in this area, he tried in vain to find the elusive land of Davis, an English pirate, which, according to his descriptions, was discovered 35 years before the Dutch expedition. True, no one except Davis and his team saw the newly discovered archipelago again.

In subsequent years, interest in the island declined. In 1774, James Cook arrived on the island, and discovered that over the years, some Easter Island idols were overturned. Most likely this was due to a war between Aboriginal tribes, but official confirmation was never obtained.

The standing idols were last seen in 1830. A French squadron then arrived on Easter Island. After this, the statues, erected by the islanders themselves, were never seen again. All of them were either overturned or destroyed.

How did the statues appear on Easter Island?

Distant masters carved “” on the slopes of the Rano Roraku volcano, located in the eastern part of the island, from soft volcanic tuff. Then the finished statues were lowered down the slope and placed along the perimeter of the island, over a distance of more than 10 km.

The height of most idols ranges from five to seven meters, while later sculptures reached 10 and 12 meters. The tuff, or, as it is also called, pumice, from which they are made, has a sponge-like structure and easily crumbles even with a slight impact on it. so the average weight of a “moai” does not exceed 5 tons.

Stone ahu - platform-pedestals: reached 150 m in length and 3 m in height, and consisted of pieces weighing up to 10 tons.

All the moai that are currently on the island were restored in the 20th century. The latest restoration work took place relatively recently - between 1992 and 1995.

At one time, Admiral Roggeveen, recalling his trip to the island, claimed that the aborigines lit fires in front of the “moai” idols and squatted next to them, bowing their heads. After that, they folded their hands and swung them up and down. Of course, this observation is not able to explain who the idols really were for the islanders.

Ancient legends say that the statues walked on their own. There is no point in asking how this actually happened, because there is no documentary evidence left anyway.

There are many hypotheses about the movement of the “moai”, some are even confirmed by experiments, but all this proves only one thing - it was possible in principle. And the statues were moved by the inhabitants of the island and no one else. So why did they do this? This is where the differences begin.

It still remains a mystery who created all these stone faces and why, whether there is any meaning in the chaotic placement of statues on the island, and why some of the statues were overturned. There are many theories that answer these questions, but none of them have been officially confirmed.

Everything that exists on the island today was restored in the 20th century.

The last restoration of fifteen “moai” located between the Rano Roraku volcano and the Poike Peninsula occurred relatively recently - from 1992 to 1995. Moreover, the Japanese were involved in the restoration work.

Local aborigines could clarify the situation if they lived to this day. The fact is that in the mid-19th century, a smallpox epidemic broke out on the island, which was brought from the continent. The disease wiped out the islanders...

At the same time, servants or warriors took the most active part in them. It depended on them whether their owner, the head of the family clan, would become Tangata-manu, or a bird-man. It is to this ritual that the main cult center, the rock village of Orongo on the largest volcano Rano Kao in the western tip of the island, owes its origin. Although, perhaps, Orongo existed long before the emergence of the cult of Tangata-manu.

Legends say that the heir to the legendary Hotu Matua, the first leader to arrive on the island, was born here. In turn, his descendants, hundreds of years later, themselves gave the signal for the start of the annual competition.

Easter Island was and remains a truly “blank” spot on the map of the globe. It is difficult to find a piece of land similar to it that would keep so many secrets that most likely will never be solved.

The last Tangata Manu ceremony took place in the 60s of the 19th century. After the disastrous pirate raid of the Peruvians in 1862, when the pirates took the entire male population of the island into slavery, there was no one left to choose the bird-man.

Why did the Easter Island natives carve moai statues in a quarry? Why did they stop this activity? The society that created the statues must have been significantly different from the 2,000 people Roggeveen saw. It had to be well organized. What happened to him?

For more than two and a half centuries, the mystery of Easter Island remained unsolved. Most theories about the history and development of Easter Island are based on oral traditions.

This happens because no one still can understand what is written in written sources - the famous tablets “ko hau motu mo rongorongo”, which roughly means a manuscript for recitation.

Most of them were destroyed by Christian missionaries, but those that survived could probably shed light on the history of this mysterious island. And although the scientific world has more than once been excited by reports that ancient writings have finally been deciphered, upon careful verification, all this turned out to be a not very accurate interpretation of oral facts and legends

Easter Island idols: history

Several years ago, paleontologist David Steadman and several other researchers carried out the first systematic study of Easter Island in order to find out what its flora and fauna were once like. The result is evidence for a new, surprising and instructive interpretation of the history of its settlers.

Easter Island was settled around 400 AD. e. The period of manufacture of the statues dates back to 1200-1500. The number of inhabitants by that time ranged from 7,000 to 20,000 people. To lift and move the statue, several hundred people were enough, who used ropes and rollers from trees, which were available in sufficient quantities at that time.

About the whole process in detail. Let's now turn to the "heads" and go to Easter Island

Easter Island, occupying 117 square meters. km. - : It is located in the Pacific Ocean at a distance of more than 3,700 km. from the nearest continent (South America) and 2600 km from the nearest inhabited island (Pitcairn).

In 1687, the pirate Edward Davis, whose ship was carried far west from Copiapo, the administrative center of the Atacama region (Chile), by sea winds and the Pacific current, noticed land on the horizon, where the silhouettes of high mountains loomed. However, without even trying to find out whether it was a mirage or an island not yet discovered by Europeans, Davis turned the ship around and headed towards the Peruvian Current.

This “Davis Land,” which much later became identified with Easter Island, reinforced the conviction of cosmographers of that time that there was a continent in this region that was, as it were, a counterweight to Asia and Europe. This led to brave sailors searching for the lost continent. However, it was never found: instead, hundreds of islands in the Pacific Ocean were discovered.

With the discovery of Easter Island, it became widely believed that this is the continent eluding man, on which a highly developed civilization existed for thousands of years, which later disappeared in the depths of the ocean, and only high mountain peaks remained from the continent (in fact, these are extinct volcanoes ). The existence of huge statues, moai, and unusual Rapa Nui tablets on the island only reinforced this opinion.

However, modern study of the adjacent waters has shown that this is unlikely.

Easter Island is located 500 km from the ridge of seamounts known as the East Pacific Rise, on the Nazca lithospheric plate. The island sits on top of a huge mountain formed from volcanic lava. The last volcanic eruption on the island occurred 3 million years ago. Although some scientists suggest that it occurred 4.5-5 million years ago.

According to local legends, in the distant past the island was large. It is quite possible that this was the case during the Pleistocene Ice Age, when the level of the World Ocean was 100 meters lower. According to geological studies, Easter Island was never part of a sunken continent

Easter Island's mild climate and volcanic origins should have made it a paradise away from the problems that beset the rest of the world, but Roggeveen's first impression of the island was that of a devastated area, covered with dried grass and scorched vegetation. Neither trees nor bushes were visible.
Modern botanists have discovered on the island only 47 species of higher plants characteristic of this area; mostly grass, sedge and ferns. The list also includes two species of dwarf trees and two species of shrubs. With such vegetation, the inhabitants of the island had no fuel to keep warm during the cold, wet and windy winter. The only domestic animals were chickens; there were no bats, birds, snakes or lizards. Only insects were found. In total, about 2,000 people lived on the island.

Residents of Easter Island. Engraving from 1860

Now about three thousand people live on the island. Of these, only 150 people are purebred Rapa Nui, the rest are Chileans and mestizos. Although, again, it is not entirely clear who exactly can be considered purebred. After all, even the first Europeans who landed on the island were surprised to discover that the inhabitants of Rapa Nui - the Polynesian name of the island - were ethnically heterogeneous. Admiral Roggeveen, whom we knew, wrote that on the land he discovered there lived white, dark, brown and even reddish people. Their language was Polynesian, belonging to a dialect isolated from about 400 AD. e., and characteristic of the Marquesas and Hawaiian Islands.

Completely inexplicable were about 200 giant stone sculptures - “Moai”, located on massive pedestals along the coast of the island with pathetic vegetation, far from the quarries. Most of the statues were located on massive pedestals. At least 700 more sculptures, in varying degrees of completion, were left in quarries or on ancient roads connecting the quarries with the coast. It seemed as if the sculptors suddenly abandoned their tools and stopped working...

Distant masters carved “moai” on the slopes of the Rano Roraku volcano, located in the eastern part of the island, from soft volcanic tuff. Then the finished statues were lowered down the slope and placed along the perimeter of the island, over a distance of more than 10 km. The height of most idols ranges from five to seven meters, while later sculptures reached 10 and 12 meters. The tuff, or, as it is also called, pumice, from which they are made, has a sponge-like structure and easily crumbles even with a slight impact on it. so the average weight of a “moai” does not exceed 5 tons. Stone ahu - platform-pedestals: reached 150 m in length and 3 m in height, and consisted of pieces weighing up to 10 tons.

Roggeveen and his companions could not understand how, without using thick wooden rollers and strong ropes, it was possible to move and install such blocks. The islanders had no wheels, no draft animals, and no other source of energy other than their own muscles. Ancient legends say that the statues walked on their own. There is no point in asking how this actually happened, because there is no documentary evidence left anyway. There are many hypotheses about the movement of the “moai”, some are even confirmed by experiments, but all this proves only one thing - it was possible in principle. And the statues were moved by the inhabitants of the island and no one else. So why did they do this? This is where the differences begin.

It is also surprising that in 1770 the statues were still standing. James Cook, who visited the island in 1774, mentioned the lying statues; no one had noticed anything like this before him. The last time the standing idols were seen was in 1830. Then a French squadron entered the island. Since then, no one has seen the original statues, that is, installed by the inhabitants of the island themselves. Everything that exists on the island today was restored in the 20th century. The last restoration of fifteen “moai” located between the Rano Roraku volcano and the Poike Peninsula occurred relatively recently - from 1992 to 1995. Moreover, the Japanese were involved in the restoration work.

In the second half of the 19th century, the cult of the bird man also died. This strange, unique ritual for all of Polynesia was dedicated to Makemaka, the supreme deity of the islanders. The chosen one became his earthly incarnation. Moreover, interestingly, elections were held regularly, once a year. At the same time, servants or warriors took the most active part in them. It depended on them whether their owner, the head of the family clan, would become Tangata-manu, or a bird-man. It is to this ritual that the main cult center, the rock village of Orongo on the largest volcano Rano Kao in the western tip of the island, owes its origin. Although, perhaps, Orongo existed long before the emergence of the cult of Tangata-manu. Legends say that the heir to the legendary Hotu Matua, the first leader to arrive on the island, was born here. In turn, his descendants, hundreds of years later, themselves gave the signal for the start of the annual competition.

In the spring, messengers of the god Makemake - black sea swallows - flew to the small islands of Motu-Kao-Kao, Motu-Iti and Motu-Nui, located not far from the coast. The warrior who was the first to find the first egg of these birds and swim it to his master received seven beautiful women as a reward. Well, the owner became a leader, or rather, a bird-man, receiving universal respect, honor and privileges. The last Tangata Manu ceremony took place in the 60s of the 19th century. After the disastrous pirate raid of the Peruvians in 1862, when the pirates took the entire male population of the island into slavery, there was no one left to choose the bird-man.

For more than two and a half centuries, the mystery of Easter Island remained unsolved. Most theories about the history and development of Easter Island are based on oral traditions. This happens because no one still can understand what is written in written sources - the famous tablets “ko hau motu mo rongorongo”, which roughly means a manuscript for recitation. Most of them were destroyed by Christian missionaries, but those that survived could probably shed light on the history of this mysterious island. And although the scientific world has more than once been excited by reports that ancient writings have finally been deciphered, upon careful verification, all this turned out to be a not very accurate interpretation of oral facts and legends
Several years ago, paleontologist David Steadman and several other researchers carried out the first systematic study of Easter Island in order to find out what its flora and fauna were once like. The result is evidence for a new, surprising and instructive interpretation of the history of its settlers.

According to one version, Easter Island was settled around 400 AD. e. (although radiocarbon dating data obtained by scientists Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo from the University of California (USA) during the study of eight samples of charcoal from Anakena indicate that the island of Rapa Nui was inhabited around 1200 AD, ) The islanders grew bananas, taro, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, and mulberries. In addition to chickens, there were also rats on the island, which arrived with the first settlers.

The period of production of the statues dates back to 1200-1500. The number of inhabitants by that time ranged from 7,000 to 20,000 people. To lift and move the statue, several hundred people were enough, who used ropes and rollers from trees, which were available in sufficient quantities at that time.
The painstaking work of archaeologists and paleontologists has shown that approximately 30,000 years before the arrival of people and in the first years of their stay, the island was not at all as deserted as it is now. A subtropical forest of trees and undergrowth rose above the shrubs, grasses, ferns and turf. The forest contained tree daisies, hauhau trees, which can be used to make ropes, and toromiro, which is useful as fuel. There were also varieties of palm trees that are not now on the island, but formerly there were so many of them that the base of the trees was densely covered with their pollen. They are related to the Chilean palm, which grows up to 32 m and has a diameter of up to 2 m. Tall, branchless trunks were ideal material for skating rinks and canoe construction. They also provided edible nuts and juice from which Chileans make sugar, syrup, honey and wine.

The relatively cold coastal waters provided fishing in only a few places. The main marine prey were dolphins and seals. To hunt them, they went out into the open sea and used harpoons. Before the arrival of people, the island was an ideal place for birds, because they did not have any enemies here. Albatrosses, gannets, frigate birds, fulmars, parrots and other birds nested here - 25 species in total. It was probably the richest nesting site in the entire Pacific Ocean.

Around the 800s, forest destruction began. Layers of charcoal from forest fires began to appear more and more often, tree pollen became less and less, and pollen from grasses that replaced the forest appeared more and more. No later than 1400, the palm trees disappeared completely, not only as a result of cutting down, but also because of the ubiquitous rats, which did not give them the opportunity to recover: a dozen surviving remains of nuts preserved in the caves showed signs of being chewed by rats. Such nuts could not germinate. The hauhau trees did not disappear completely, but there were no longer enough of them to make ropes.
In the 15th century, not only the palm trees disappeared, but the entire forest disappeared. It was destroyed by people who cleared areas for gardens, cut down trees to build canoes, to make skating rinks for sculptures, and for heating. The rats ate the seeds. It is likely that the birds died out due to polluted flowers and a decrease in fruit yield. The same thing happened that happens everywhere in the world where forests are destroyed: most of the forest inhabitants disappear. All species of local birds and animals have disappeared on the island. All coastal fish were also caught. Small snails were used as food. From the diet of people by the 15th century. the dolphins disappeared: there was nothing to go out to sea on, and there was nothing to make harpoons from. It came down to cannibalism.

The paradise that opened to the first settlers became almost lifeless 1600 years later. Fertile soils, an abundance of food, plenty of building materials, sufficient living space, and all opportunities for a comfortable existence were destroyed. At the time of Heyerdahl's visit to the island, there was only a toromiro tree on the island; now he is no longer there.
It all started with the fact that several centuries after arriving on the island, people began, like their Polynesian ancestors, to install stone idols on platforms. Over time, the statues became larger; their heads began to be decorated with red 10-ton crowns; the spiral of competition was unwinding; Rival clans tried to outdo each other with displays of health and strength like the Egyptians building their giant pyramids. The island, like modern America, had a complex political system for distributing available resources and integrating the economy in various areas.

An 1873 engraving from the English newspaper Harper Weekly. The engraving is signed: “Easter Island Stone Idols Festival Dancing Tatoos.”

The ever-growing population depleted the forests faster than they could regenerate; vegetable gardens took up more and more space; the soil, devoid of forests, springs and streams dried up; the trees that were spent on transporting and lifting the statues, as well as on building canoes and dwellings, were not enough even for cooking. As birds and animals were destroyed, famine set in. The fertility of arable lands decreased due to wind and rain erosion. Droughts have begun. Intensive chicken breeding and cannibalism did not solve the food problem. Statues prepared for moving with sunken cheeks and visible ribs are evidence of the onset of hunger.

With food scarce, the islanders could no longer support the chiefs, bureaucracy, and shamans who administered the society. The surviving islanders told the first Europeans to visit them how the centralized system had been replaced by chaos and the warlike class had defeated the hereditary leaders. The stones appeared to depict spears and daggers made by the warring parties in the 1600s and 1700s; They are still scattered throughout Easter Island. By 1700 the population was between a quarter and a tenth of its former size. People moved into caves to hide from their enemies. Around 1770, rival clans began knocking over each other's statues and cutting off their heads. The last statue was toppled and desecrated in 1864.
As the picture of the decline of the civilization of Easter Island appeared before the researchers, they asked themselves: “Why didn’t they look back, didn’t realize what was happening, didn’t stop before it was too late?” What were they thinking when they cut down the last palm tree?

Most likely, the disaster did not occur suddenly, but stretched out over several decades. The changes occurring in nature were not noticeable for one generation. Only old people, looking back on their childhood years, could realize what was happening and understand the threat posed by the destruction of forests, but the ruling class and stonemasons, afraid of losing their privileges and jobs, treated the warnings in the same way as today's loggers in the northwestern United States: “Work is more important than forest!”

The trees gradually became smaller, thinner and less significant. Once upon a time, the last fruit-bearing palm was cut off, and the young shoots were destroyed along with the remains of bushes and undergrowth. No one noticed the death of the last young palm tree.

The flora of the island is very poor: experts count no more than 30 species of plants growing on Rapa Nui. Most of them were brought from other islands of Oceania, America, and Europe. Many plants that were previously widespread on Rapa Nui have been exterminated. Between the 9th and 17th centuries there was active cutting down of trees, which led to the disappearance of forests on the island (probably before that, palm trees of the species Paschalococos disperta grew on it). Another reason was rats eating tree seeds. Due to irrational human economic activities and other factors, the resulting accelerated soil erosion caused enormous damage to agriculture, as a result of which the population of Rapa Nui decreased significantly.

One of the extinct plants is Sophora toromiro, whose local name is toromiro (rap. toromiro). This plant on the island in the past played an important role in the culture of the Rapa Nui people: “talking tablets” with local pictograms were made from it.

The trunk of the toromiro, with a diameter of a human thigh and thinner, was often used in the construction of houses; spears were also made from it. In the 19th-20th centuries, this tree was exterminated (one of the reasons was that the young shoots were destroyed by sheep brought to the island).
Another plant on the island is the mulberry tree, whose local name is mahute. In the past, this plant also played a significant role in the life of the islanders: white clothing called tapa was made from the bast of the mulberry tree. After the arrival of the first Europeans on the island - whalers and missionaries - the importance of mahute in the life of the Rapanui people decreased.

The roots of the ti plant, or Dracaena terminalis, were used to make sugar. This plant was also used to make dark blue and green powder, which was then applied to the body as tattoos.

Makoi (rap. makoi) (Thespesia populnea) was used for carving.

One of the island's surviving plants, which grows on the slopes of the Rano Kao and Rano Raraku craters, is Scirpus californicus, used in the construction of houses.

In recent decades, small growths of eucalyptus have begun to appear on the island. In the 18th-19th centuries, grapes, bananas, melons, and sugar cane were brought to the island.

Before the arrival of Europeans on the island, the fauna of Easter Island was mainly represented by marine animals: seals, turtles, crabs. Until the 19th century, chickens were bred on the island. Species of the local fauna that previously inhabited Rapa Nui have become extinct. For example, the rat species Rattus exulans, which was used as food by local residents in the past. Instead, rats of the species Rattus norvegicus and Rattus rattus were brought to the island by European ships, which became carriers of various diseases previously unknown to the Rapanui people.

Currently, the island is home to 25 species of seabirds and 6 species of land birds.

The statistics for moai are as follows. The total number of moai is 887. The number of moai that are installed on Ahu pedestals is 288 (32 percent of the total). The number of moai that stand on the slopes of the Rano Raraku volcano, where the moai carving quarry was located, is 397 (45 percent of the total). The number of moai that lie scattered throughout the island is 92 (10 percent of the total). Moai have different heights - from 4 to 20 meters. The largest of them stand alone on the slope of the Rano Raraku volcano. They are neck-deep in sediment that has accumulated on the island over the long history of this piece of land. Some moai stood on stone pedestals called ahu by the natives. The number of ahu exceeds three hundred. The size of ahu also varies - from several tens of meters to two hundred meters. The largest moai, nicknamed "El Gigante", is 21.6 meters high. It is located in the Rano Raraku quarry and weighs approximately 145-165 tons. The largest moai standing on a pedestal is located on ahu Te Pito Kura. He has the nickname Paro, his height is about 10 meters, and his weight is about 80 tons.

Mysteries of Easter Island.

Easter Island is full of mysteries. Everywhere on the island you can see entrances to caves, stone platforms, grooved alleys leading directly to the ocean, huge statues, and signs on stones.
One of the main mysteries of the island, which has haunted several generations of travelers and researchers, remains completely unique stone statues - moai. These are stone idols of various sizes - from 3 to 21 meters. On average, the weight of one statue is from 10 to 20 tons, but among them there are real colossi weighing from 40 to 90 tons.

The glory of the island began with these stone statues. It was completely incomprehensible how they could appear on an island lost in the ocean with sparse vegetation and a “wild” population. Who hewed them out, dragged them to the shore, placed them on specially made pedestals and crowned them with weighty headdresses?

The statues have an extremely strange appearance - they have very large heads with heavy protruding chins, long ears and no legs at all. Some have red stone “caps” on their heads. To which human tribe did those whose portraits remained on the island in the form of moai belong? A pointed, raised nose, thin lips, slightly protruded as if in a grimace of mockery and contempt. Deep grooves under the brow ridges, a large forehead - who are they?

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Some statues have necklaces carved in stone, or tattoos made with a chisel. The face of one of the stone giants is riddled with holes. Perhaps in ancient times, the sages who lived on the island, studying the movement of the heavenly bodies, tattooed their faces with a map of the starry sky?

The eyes of the statues look into the sky. Into the sky - the same as when centuries ago, a new homeland opened up for those who sailed over the horizon?

In former times, the islanders were convinced that the moai protected their land and themselves from evil spirits. All standing moai face the island. Incomprehensible as time, they are immersed in silence. These are mysterious symbols of a bygone civilization.

It is known that the sculptures were carved from volcanic lava at one end of the island, and then the finished figures were carried along three main roads to the sites of ceremonial plinths - ahu - scattered along the coastline. The largest ahu, now destroyed, was 160 m long, and on its central platform, about 45 m long, there were 15 statues.

The vast majority of statues lie unfinished in quarries or along ancient roads. Some of them are frozen in the depths of the crater of the Rano Raraku volcano, some go beyond the crest of the volcano and seem to be heading towards the ocean. Everything seemed to stop at one moment, engulfed in a whirlwind of an unknown cataclysm. Why did the sculptors suddenly stop working? Everything was left in place - stone axes, unfinished statues, and stone giants, as if frozen on the path in their movement, as if people simply abandoned their work for a minute and were never able to return to it.

Some statues, previously installed on stone platforms, have been toppled and broken. The same applies to stone platforms - hoo.

The construction of ahu required no less effort and skill than the creation of the statues themselves. It was necessary to make blocks and form them into an even pedestal. The density with which the bricks fit together is amazing. Why the first axy were built (their age is about 700-800 years) is still unclear. Subsequently, they were often used as burial places and perpetuating the memory of leaders.

Excavations carried out on several sections of ancient roads, along which the islanders supposedly carried multi-ton statues (sometimes over a distance of more than 20 kilometers), showed that all the roads clearly bypassed flat areas. The roads themselves are V- or U-shaped hollows about 3.5 meters wide. In some areas there are long connecting fragments, shaped like curbstones. In some places, pillars dug outside the curbs are clearly visible - perhaps they served as supports for some kind of device like a lever. Scientists have not yet established the exact date of construction of these roads, however, according to researchers, the process of moving the statues was completed on Easter Island around 1500 BC.

Another mystery: simple calculations show that over hundreds of years a small population could not carve, transport and install even half of the existing statues. Ancient wooden tablets with carved writings were found on the island. Most of them were lost during the conquest of the island by Europeans. But some signs have survived. The letters went from left to right, and then in the reverse order - from right to left. It took a long time to decipher the signs written on them. And only at the beginning of 1996 in Moscow it was announced that all 4 surviving text tablets had been deciphered. It is curious that in the language of the islanders there is a word denoting slow movement without the help of legs. Levitation? Was this fantastic method used when transporting and installing the moai?

And one more mystery. Old maps around Easter Island show other areas. Oral traditions tell of the land slowly sinking under water. Other legends tell of catastrophes: about the fiery staff of the god Uvok, which split the earth. Couldn’t larger islands or even an entire continent with a highly developed culture and technology have existed here in ancient times? They even came up with the beautiful name Pasifida for it.

Some scientists suggest that there is still a certain clan (order) of Easter people that preserves the secrets of their ancestors and hides them from the uninitiated in ancient knowledge.

Easter Island has many names:

Hititeairagi (rap. Hititeairagi), or Hiti-ai-rangi (rap. Hiti-ai-rangi);
Tekaouhangoaru (rap. Tekaouhangoaru);
Mata-Kiterage (rap. Mata-Kiterage - translated from Rapanui “eyes looking into the sky”);
Te-Pito-te-henua (rap. Te-Pito-te-henua - “navel of the earth”);
Rapa Nui (Rapa Nui - "Great Rapa"), a name mainly used by whalers;
San Carlos Island, named by Gonzalez Don Felipe in honor of the King of Spain;
Teapi (rap. Teapi) - that’s what James Cook called the island;
Vaihu (rap. Vaihu), or Vaihou (rap. Vaihou), - this name was also used by James Cook, and later by Forster Johann Georg Adam and La Perouse Jean Francois de Galo (a bay in the northeast of the island was named in his honor);
Easter Island, so named by the Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen because he discovered it on Easter Day 1722. Very often, Easter Island is called Rapa Nui (translated as “Big Rapa”), although it is not of Rapanui, but of Polynesian origin. This
The island received its name thanks to Tahitian navigators, who used it to distinguish between Easter Island and Rapa Island, which lies 650 km south of Tahiti. The very name "Rapa Nui" has caused a lot of controversy among linguists about the correct spelling of this word. Among
English-speaking specialists use the word “Rapa Nui” (2 words) to name the island, the word “Rapanui” (1 word) when talking about the people or local culture.

Easter Island is a province within the Chilean region of Valparaiso, headed by a governor accredited to the Chilean government and appointed by the president. Since 1984, only a local resident can become the governor of the island (the first was Sergio Rapu Haoa, a former archaeologist and museum curator). Administratively, the province of Easter Island includes the uninhabited islands of Sala y Gomez. Since 1966, the settlement of Hanga Roa has elected a local council of 6 members, headed by a mayor, every four years.

There are about two dozen police officers on the island, mainly responsible for security at the local airport.

The Chilean armed forces (mainly the Navy) are also present. The current currency on the island is the Chilean peso (US dollars are also in circulation on the island). Easter Island is a duty-free zone, so tax revenues to the island's budget are relatively small. It largely consists of government subsidies.

colossus (height 6 m) after excavations Easter Island (after: Heyerdahl, 1982

By the way, this is a prop thrown into the sea during the filming of another film on the island. So there were no underwater statues.

Here's another theory of what it should look like.

Easter Island, occupying 117 square meters. km. - one of the most secluded habitats (along with the Tristan da Cunha archipelago): it is located in the Pacific Ocean at a distance of more than 3,700 km. from the nearest continent (South America) and 2600 km from the nearest inhabited island (Pitcairn).

However, modern study of the adjacent waters has shown that this is unlikely.

Modern botanists have discovered on the island only 47 species of higher plants characteristic of this area; mostly grass, sedge and ferns. The list also includes two species of dwarf trees and two species of shrubs. With such vegetation, the inhabitants of the island had no fuel to keep warm during the cold, wet and windy winter. The only domestic animals were chickens; there were no bats, birds, snakes or lizards. Only insects were found. In total, about 2,000 people lived on the island.

Residents of Easter Island. Engraving from 1860

The painstaking work of archaeologists and paleontologists has shown that approximately 30,000 years before the arrival of people and in the first years of their stay, the island was not at all as deserted as it is now. A subtropical forest of trees and undergrowth rose above the shrubs, grasses, ferns and turf. The forest contained tree daisies, hauhau trees, which can be used to make ropes, and toromiro, which is useful as fuel. There were also varieties of palm trees that are not now on the island, but formerly there were so many of them that the base of the trees was densely covered with their pollen. They are related to the Chilean palm, which grows up to 32 m and has a diameter of up to 2 m. Tall, branchless trunks were ideal material for skating rinks and canoe construction. They also provided edible nuts and juice from which Chileans make sugar, syrup, honey and wine.

In the 15th century, not only the palm trees disappeared, but the entire forest disappeared. It was destroyed by people who cleared areas for gardens, cut down trees to build canoes, to make skating rinks for sculptures, and for heating. The rats ate the seeds. It is likely that the birds died out due to polluted flowers and a decrease in fruit yield. The same thing happened that happens everywhere in the world where forests are destroyed: most of the forest inhabitants disappear. All species of local birds and animals have disappeared on the island. All coastal fish were also caught. Small snails were used as food. From the diet of people by the 15th century. the dolphins disappeared: there was nothing to go out to sea on, and there was nothing to make harpoons from. It came down to cannibalism.

It all started with the fact that several centuries after arriving on the island, people began, like their Polynesian ancestors, to install stone idols on platforms. Over time, the statues became larger; their heads began to be decorated with red 10-ton crowns; the spiral of competition was unwinding; Rival clans tried to outdo each other with displays of health and strength like the Egyptians building their giant pyramids. The island, like modern America, had a complex political system for distributing available resources and integrating the economy in various areas.

An 1873 engraving from the English newspaper Harper Weekly. The engraving is signed: “Easter Island Stone Idols Festival Dancing Tatoos.”

The ever-growing population depleted the forests faster than they could regenerate; vegetable gardens took up more and more space; the soil, devoid of forests, springs and streams dried up; the trees that were spent on transporting and lifting the statues, as well as on building canoes and dwellings, were not enough even for cooking. As birds and animals were destroyed, famine set in. The fertility of arable lands decreased due to wind and rain erosion. Droughts have begun. Intensive chicken breeding and cannibalism did not solve the food problem. The statues, prepared for moving, with sunken cheeks and visible ribs, are evidence of the onset of hunger.

As the picture of the decline of the civilization of Easter Island appeared before the researchers, they asked themselves: - Why didn’t they look back, didn’t realize what was happening, didn’t stop until it was too late? What were they thinking when they cut down the last palm tree?

Another plant on the island is the mulberry tree, whose local name is mahute. In the past, this plant also played a significant role in the life of the islanders: white clothing called tapa was made from the bast of the mulberry tree. After the arrival of the first Europeans on the island - whalers and missionaries - the importance of mahute in the life of the Rapanui people decreased.

The roots of the ti plant, or Dracaena terminalis, were used to make sugar. This plant was also used to make dark blue and green powder, which was then applied to the body as tattoos.

Makoi (rap. makoi) (Thespesia populnea) was used for carving.

One of the island's surviving plants, which grows on the slopes of the Rano Kao and Rano Raraku craters, is Scirpus californicus, used in the construction of houses.

In recent decades, small growths of eucalyptus have begun to appear on the island. In the 18th-19th centuries, grapes, bananas, melons, and sugar cane were brought to the island.

Currently, the island is home to 25 species of seabirds and 6 species of land birds.

The statistics for moai are as follows. The total number of moai is 887. The number of moai that are mounted on Ahu pedestals is 288 (32 percent of the total). The number of moai that stand on the slopes of the Rano Raraku volcano, where the moai carving quarry was located, is 397 (45 percent of the total). The number of moai that lie scattered throughout the island is 92 (10 percent of the total). Moai have different heights - from 4 to 20 meters. The largest of them stand alone on the slope of the Rano Raraku volcano.

They are neck-deep in sediment that has accumulated on the island over the long history of this piece of land. Some moai stood on stone pedestals called ahu by the natives. The number of ahu exceeds three hundred. The size of ahu also varies - from several tens of meters to two hundred meters. The largest moai, nicknamed "El Gigante", is 21.6 meters high. It is located in the Rano Raraku quarry and weighs approximately 145-165 tons. The largest moai standing on a pedestal is located on ahu Te Pito Kura. He has the nickname Paro, his height is about 10 meters, and his weight is about 80 tons.

Mysteries of Easter Island

Easter Island is full of mysteries. Everywhere on the island you can see entrances to caves, stone platforms, grooved alleys leading directly to the ocean, huge statues, and signs on stones.

One of the main mysteries of the island, which has haunted several generations of travelers and researchers, remains completely unique stone statues - moai. These are stone idols of various sizes - from 3 to 21 meters. On average, the weight of one statue is from 10 to 20 tons, but among them there are real colossi weighing from 40 to 90 tons.

The eyes of the statues look into the sky. Into the sky - the same as when centuries ago, a new homeland opened up for those who sailed over the horizon?

It is known that the sculptures were carved out of volcanic lava at one end of the island, and then the finished figures were carried along three main roads to the sites of ceremonial plinths - ahu - scattered along the coastline. The largest ahu, now destroyed, was 160 m long, and on its central platform, about 45 m long, there were 15 statues.

The vast majority of statues lie unfinished in quarries or along ancient roads. Some of them are frozen in the depths of the crater of the Rano Raraku volcano, some go beyond the crest of the volcano and seem to be heading towards the ocean. Everything seemed to stop at one moment, engulfed in a whirlwind of an unknown cataclysm. Why did the sculptors suddenly stop working? Everything was left in place - stone axes, unfinished statues, and stone giants, as if frozen on the path in their movement, as if people simply left their work for a minute and were never able to return to it.

Some statues, previously installed on stone platforms, have been toppled and broken. The same applies to stone platforms - ahoo.

Excavations carried out on several sections of ancient roads, along which the islanders supposedly carried multi-ton statues (sometimes over a distance of more than 20 kilometers), showed that all the roads clearly bypassed flat areas. The roads themselves are V- or U-shaped hollows about 3.5 meters wide. In some areas there are long connecting fragments, shaped like curbstones. In some places, pillars dug outside the curbs are clearly visible - perhaps they served as a support for some kind of device like a lever. Scientists have not yet established the exact date of construction of these roads, however, according to researchers, the process of moving the statues was completed on Easter Island around 1500 BC.

Some scientists suggest that there is still a certain clan (order) of Easter people that preserves the secrets of their ancestors and hides them from the uninitiated in ancient knowledge.

Easter Island has many names:

Hititeairagi (rap. Hititeairagi), or Hiti-ai-rangi (rap. Hiti-ai-rangi);
Tekaouhangoaru (rap. Tekaouhangoaru);
Mata-Kiterage (rap. Mata-Kiterage - translated from Rapanui “eyes looking into the sky”);
Te-Pito-te-henua (rap. Te-Pito-te-henua - “navel of the earth”);
Rapa Nui (Rapa Nui - "Great Rapa"), a name mainly used by whalers;
San Carlos Island, named by Gonzalez Don Felipe in honor of the King of Spain;
Teapi (rap. Teapi) - that’s what James Cook called the island;
Vaihu (rap. Vaihu), or Vaihou (rap. Vaihou), - this name was also used by James Cook, and later by Forster Johann Georg Adam and La Perouse Jean Francois de Galo (a bay in the northeast of the island was named in his honor);
Easter Island, so named by the Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen because he discovered it on Easter Day 1722.
Very often, Easter Island is called Rapa Nui (translated as “Big Rapa”), although it is not of Rapanui, but of Polynesian origin. The island received this name thanks to Tahitian navigators, who used it to distinguish between Easter Island and Rapa Island, which lies 650 km south of Tahiti. The very name "Rapa Nui" has caused a lot of controversy among linguists about the correct spelling of this word. Among English-speaking specialists, the word “Rapa Nui” (2 words) is used to name the island, the word “Rapanui” (1 word) when talking about the people or local culture.

Our planet is only revealing its secrets to humanity. How many corners of it still remain to be visited and explored? How many amazing discoveries will be made in the foreseeable future? It is very difficult to give a definite answer to all these questions. At almost every step we all come across amazing phenomena and occurrences, which thousands of scientists around the world are trying in vain to explain. Unusual finds that are scattered across the globe are just waiting for their “finest hour” to reveal their true nature and purpose.

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Read our article on how to get to Easter Island.

Today I propose to go together to one of the most unusual islands - Easter Island, which belongs to the Latin American state of Chile. It was here that amazing giants made of stone - monolithic Moai statues - first appeared before the discoverers of distant lands. They are officially known as the Easter Island idols. It is believed that the statues were created by the Aborigines who inhabited the island. The stone sculptures date back to the 10th-15th centuries. In addition, the island is simply “teeming” with interesting finds in the form of ancient caves, grooved alleys that go somewhere into the ocean. All this indicates that the island was once the center of a nation unknown to archaeologists with unusual traditions and unique customs. Interested? Still would!

Not every one of us knows why the island received such an unusual name. The first impression that the name is tied to a famous holiday turns out to be correct. The island was first visited by Europeans in 1722. It was in this year that a ship from Holland under the command of Jacob Roggeveen dropped anchor off the coast of a distant Pacific island. Since overseas lands were discovered just at the time of Easter celebrations, the island received the appropriate name.

It was here that one of the most impressive man-made phenomena of all civilization was discovered - the Moai stone statues. Thanks to the stone statues, the island has become famous throughout the world and is rightfully considered one of the main tourist centers in the Southern Hemisphere.

Purpose of statues

Since the statues appeared on the island in ancient times, their size and shape evoked thoughts of extraterrestrial origin. Although it was still possible to establish that the statues were created by local tribes that once inhabited the island. Despite the fact that several centuries have passed since the discovery of the island, scientists have still not been able to unravel the true purpose of the stone giants. They were assigned the role of tombstones and places for worship of pagan gods, they were even considered as real monuments to famous islanders.

The first descriptions of the Dutch navigator help to form a definite impression of the significance of the statues. For example, the discoverer noted in his diary that the aborigines lit fires and prayed near the statues. But the most surprising thing was that the aborigines were not distinguished by a developed culture and could not boast of certain achievements in construction or any advanced technologies even for that time. Accordingly, a completely logical question arose about how these tribes, living according to primitive customs, were able to create such amazing statues.

Numerous researchers have made the most unusual assumptions. Initially, it was believed that the statues were made of clay or were even brought from the mainland. But soon all these guesses were refuted. The statues turned out to be completely monolithic. Skilled authors created their masterpieces directly from rock fragments using primitive tools.

Only after the famous navigator Cook visited the island, who was accompanied by a Polynesian who understood the language of the island’s aborigines, did it become known that the stone sculptures were not dedicated to the gods at all. They were installed in honor of the rulers of ancient tribes.

How the statues were created

As already mentioned, the statues were hewn out of monolithic rock fragments in a volcanic quarry. The work on creating unique giants began with the face, gradually moving to the sides and arms. All statues are made in the form of long busts without legs. When the Moai were ready, they were transported to the installation site and placed on a stone pedestal. But how these multi-ton giants moved from the quarry of the volcano to the stone pedestals over a huge distance is still the main mystery of Easter Island. Just imagine how much force it could take to deliver a 5-meter stone giant, the average weight of which reached 5 tons! And sometimes there were statues more than 10 meters high and weighing more than 10 tons.

Every time humanity encounters something inexplicable, a lot of legends are born. This happened this time too. According to local legends, the huge statues were once able to walk. Having reached the island, they lost this amazing ability and remained here forever. But this is nothing more than a colorful legend. Another legend says that the untold wealth of the Incas was hidden inside each statue. In pursuit of easy money, antiquity hunters and “black archaeologists” destroyed more than one statue. But nothing but disappointment awaited them inside.

Has the mystery been solved?

Not long ago, a group of American scientists who were studying ancient giants announced that they were close to solving the Moai statues. Researchers claim that the statues were transported in groups using primitive lifting mechanisms, huge carts and even large animals. Since the statue was transported in a vertical position, from a distance it seemed as if the stone block was moving on its own.

Tourism

From the very moment when tourism began to develop at a crazy pace, when the popularity of this type of active recreation and spending time gained enormous popularity among exotic lovers and simply curious citizens, Easter Island became a real place of excitement. Thousands come from all over the world to look at the amazing stone statues. Each statue is unique and has its own unique decoration, shape and size. Many of them have bizarrely shaped headdresses. By the way, hats differ in color. And, as we found out, they were manufactured elsewhere.

Mounted on special pedestals, these silent creations of human hands evoke sincere admiration from everyone who is lucky enough to see them with their own eyes. They seem to peer with their “dead eyes” deep into the island or into the blue expanse of the ocean. If they could talk, how many interesting things could they tell about the lives of their creators? How many secrets could be comprehended without suffering from numerous guesses?

The most popular place to visit is the Tongariki platform. 15 statues of different sizes were placed on the stone base. The statues have preserved many traces of civil wars and other destructive events to which the island was subjected. There is information that in 1960, a monstrous tsunami hit the island, which threw stone sculptures 100 meters deep into the island. Residents managed to recreate the platform on their own.

Finding the platform is not difficult. It is located in close proximity to the Rano Raraku volcano, which became their deposit. Taking a photo among the giant Moai is the sacred duty of every tourist visiting the Chilean island. According to “experienced photo hunters,” the best time for photo sessions is sunset and dawn. In the rays of the sun, stone giants appear in a different, unusual beauty.

Just the sight of these stone giants evokes awe and respect for their creators, makes you think about your life and your true place in the Universe. The giants of Easter Island are one of the most mysterious creations, the secret of which we all have yet to learn. They came to us from the quarry of a volcano and carry within them a still unknown mystery for thousands of centuries.

How to get there

Unfortunately, getting to Easter Island is very problematic even today. Although there are two simple methods - air and water - they are still quite expensive. The first method will require you to purchase a ticket on a scheduled plane. You can fly from the capital of Chile, Santiago. The flight will take at least 5 hours. You can also get to Easter Island by cruise ship or yacht. Many tourist ships that pass off the coast of the island happily call at the local port, providing their passengers with a unique opportunity to touch the long history of the mysterious island.