Easter Island idols- giant stone heads decorating the entire island.
The small Easter Island in the South Pacific, owned by Chile, is one of the most mysterious corners of our planet. Hearing this name, you immediately remember the cult of birds, the mysterious writings of kohau rongo-rongo and the cyclopean stone platforms ahu. But the main attraction of the island can be called moai.
Moai - statues-idols of Easter Island
In total, there are 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 statues of Easter Island cannot be confused with anything else.
For example, there is nothing like it.
Huge heads on frail bodies, faces with characteristic powerful chins and features as if carved with an ax - all these are moai statues.
Moai reach a height of five to seven meters. There are individual specimens ten meters high, 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 a 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 after some time he accidentally died under mysterious circumstances. Although whether what the Spaniard found was Easter Island is still unclear.
After 144 years, in 1722, the Dutch admiral Jacob Roggeveen stumbled on Easter Island, and this event took place on the day of Christian Easter. So, quite by accident, the island of Te Pito o te Henua, which in the local dialect means the Center of the World, turned into Easter Island.
In his notes, the admiral indicated that the natives held ceremonies in front of stone heads, kindled fires and fell into a trance-like state, swaying back and forth.
What the moai were for the islanders was never found out, but most likely the stone sculptures served as idols. The researchers also suggest that the stone statues could be statues of deceased ancestors.
It is interesting that Admiral Roggeven with 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, has ever seen the newly discovered archipelago.
In subsequent years, interest in the island declined. In 1774, James Cook arrived on the island and discovered that over the years some statues of Easter Island were overturned. Most likely this was due to the war between the tribes of the aborigines, but it was not possible to obtain official confirmation.
Standing idols were last seen in 1830. A French squadron then arrived on Easter Island. After that, the statues, installed by the islanders themselves, were never seen again. All of them were either overturned or destroyed.
How the statues appeared on Easter Island
Distant craftsmen 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, at a distance of more than 10 km.
The height of most idols is from five to seven meters, while later statues reached up to 10 and up to 12 meters. Tuff, or, as it is also called, pumice, from which they are made, resembles a sponge in structure and crumbles easily even with a light impact on it. so that the average weight of "moai" does not exceed 5 tons.
Stone ahu - platforms-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 last restoration work took place relatively recently - in the period from 1992 to 1995.
At one time, Admiral Roggeven, recalling his journey to the island, claimed that the natives made fires in front of the moai idols and squatted next to them, bowing their heads. After that, they folded their arms and swung them up and down. Of course, this observation is not able to explain who the idols really were for the islanders.
Roggeven and his companions could not understand how, without the use of 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 than their own muscles.
Ancient legends say that the statues walked by themselves. There is no point in asking how this actually happened, because there is still no documentary evidence left.
There are many hypotheses for the movement of "moai", some are even confirmed by experiments, but all this proves only one thing - it was possible in principle. And the inhabitants of the island moved the statues and no one else. That's what they did it for? This is where the divergences begin.
It still remains a mystery who and why created all these stone faces, is there any sense in the chaotic placement of statues on the island, why some of the statues were overturned. There are many theories that answer these questions, but none of them has 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, took place relatively recently - from 1992 to 1995. Moreover, the Japanese were engaged in restoration work.
The local aborigines could clarify the situation if they survived to this day. The fact is that in the middle of the 19th century, an epidemic of smallpox broke out on the island, which was brought from the continent. The disease and mowed down the islanders under the root ...
In the second half of the 19th century, the cult of the bird-man also died. This strange ritual, unique for all Polynesia, was dedicated to Makemake, the supreme deity of the islanders. The Chosen One became his earthly incarnation. Moreover, interestingly, the 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 master, the head of the family clan, Tangata-manu, or a bird-man would become. It is this ritual that owes its origin to the main cult center - the rocky village of Orongo on the largest volcano Rano Kao in the western tip of the island. Although, perhaps, Orongo existed long before the emergence of the Tangata-manu cult.
Traditions say that the heir to the legendary Hotu Matua, the first leader who arrived on the island, was born here. In turn, hundreds of years later, his descendants themselves gave the signal for the start of the annual competition.
Easter Island was and remains a truly "white" spot on the map of the globe. It is difficult to find a piece of land like it that would keep so many secrets that most likely will never be solved.
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 first found the first egg of these birds and delivered it by swimming 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 enslaved the entire male population of the island, there was no one and no one to choose a bird-man.
Why did the natives of Easter Island carve moai statues in a quarry? Why did they stop doing this? The society that created the statues had to be significantly different from the 2,000 people that 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 tradition.
This happens because no one still can understand what is inscribed 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 even those that survived could probably shed light on the history of this mysterious island. And although the scientific world has been agitated more than once by reports that ancient writings have finally been deciphered, when carefully checked, all this turned out to be not a very accurate interpretation of oral facts and legends.
Easter Island idols: history
A few 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 plant and animal life was like before. As a result, data appeared for a new, surprising and instructive interpretation of the history of its settlers.
Easter Island was inhabited around 400 AD. e. The period of manufacture of statues refers to 1200-1500 years. The number of inhabitants by that time ranged from 7,000 to 20,000 people. To lift and move the statue, several hundred people are enough, who used ropes and rollers from trees that were available at that time in sufficient numbers.
Paradise, opened to the first settlers, 1600 years later became almost lifeless. Fertile soils, abundance of food, plenty of building materials, sufficient living space, all the possibilities for a comfortable existence were destroyed. By the time Heyerdahl visited the island, there was a single toromiro tree on the island; now it is no more.
And it all started with the fact that a few centuries after arriving on the island, people began, like their Polynesian ancestors, to install stone idols on platforms. Over time, the statues became larger and larger; their heads began to adorn red 10-ton crowns.
Easter Island, belonging to the Republic of Chile, is located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. Its area is 165 sq. km, the distance to the nearest mainland is more than 3500 km.
The island got its name because it was discovered by Europeans on Easter Sunday in 1722. But the natives call their habitat Rapanui, which in translation from Polynesian means "Big Rapa".
The main property of Rapanui, which attracts tourists from all over the world, are huge giants scattered along the entire coastline with large heads and a shapeless body - moai.
The inhabitants of Rapanui believe that the spiritual power of the island is contained in the moai sculptures - mana, which helps to achieve success in love, victory in war and recovery from illness; the concentration of mana contributes to the establishment of good weather and the collection of a rich harvest.
In addition, this supernatural power in ancient times revived the moai statues, so they came to the place of installation themselves - the Rapanui people say this with confidence even today.
The first researchers about moai statues
Jacob Roggeveen
Jacob Roggeveen, a Dutch navigator who is considered the discoverer of the island, having spent only one day there, told the following about the Rapanui people: they live in small huts made of reeds, pray to huge statues in the evenings, use mats instead of a mattress, and stones play the role of pillows. Roggeven could not believe that the natives, with their primitive way of life, built huge stone sculptures, so he decided that the figures were molded from clay and sprinkled with stones on top.
James Cook visited the island in 1774. The researcher was amazed: how did the ancient Rapanui, deprived of any kind of modern technology, set giant statues on stone pedestals? He also noted that some of the sculptures were toppled during his stay at Rapanui.
What are the idols made of?
The vast majority of moai (95%) is made in large-block volcanic tuff that can be easily processed. The material for the manufacture of the remaining 5% of the giants are trachyte, red basalt volcanic pumice or basalt. One of the statues - especially revered by the Rapanui Hoa-Haka-Nana-Ia - was carved from the mujierite of the Rano Kao volcano.
Many moai were made in a quarry located on the territory of the Rano Raraku volcano. Researchers admit that some of the statues were cut down from the deposits of other volcanoes, located closer to the place of their subsequent installation.
The size and weight of the giants
The average weight of most idols is about 5 tons with a height of 3-5 meters and a base width of just over one and a half meters. Statues taller (about 10-12 meters) and weighing more than 10 tons are less common on the island. They are mainly located on the outer slope of the Rano Raraku volcano.
The largest statue, measuring more than 20 meters and weighing about 145 tons, has not been separated from the base and is still in the quarry.
Location on the island
The most ancient moai were installed on ahu - long (from 10 to 160 meters) rectangular stone ceremonial platforms. On such pedestals were placed from one small statue to a number of giant giants. Some of the idols on such sites are equipped with red pukao cylinders.
The largest of the platforms, ahu Tongariki, holds 15 moai of various sizes.
Half of the sculptures, for unknown reasons, remained in Rano Raraku. Some of them are not completely cut down, at least they look unfinished, as if the sculptors were forced to suddenly leave their workplaces. But perhaps that was the intention of the authors.
Moai Mystery
For a long time, Europeans could not understand who was the author of the moai, what tools were used for making it, how giant giants moved around the island from the quarry to their destination, located 18 kilometers away, with what devices were huge sculptures installed on stone platforms? Over the past decades, researchers have been arguing with each other, trying to find answers to these questions.
"Long-eared" sculptors
In the 50s of the last century, Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian traveler, landed on the island, who organized an archaeological expedition to Rapanui with the aim of conducting an experiment on carving, moving and subsequent installation of moai.
In preparation for the experiment, it turned out that the creator of the huge heads was a tribe that outwardly differs from the main population of the island with earlobes elongated under the weight of jewelry - hence they got their name: “long-eared”.
This endangered tribe kept a secret for many centuries from all the other “short-eared” inhabitants of the island, who surrounded the moai with various superstitions and misled European researchers for a long time.
Thor Heyerdahl asked the leader of the "long-ears" to reproduce the entire process of carving, moving around the island and installing one statue. The leader of the clan, Pedro Atan, replied that the last generations of the dying tribe were no longer engaged in the manufacture of statues, but in theory they know how to do this, since this knowledge was passed on to them by inheritance.
During the experiment, the tribe carved moai with stone hammers by frequent blows on the volcanic rock; the hammers were constantly destroyed, so the "long-eared" had to often change them for new ones.
A carved 12-ton statue was moved by a large group of people to the place of installation in a prone position, dragged. They installed the statue on its “legs” by placing stones under its base and using logs as levers.
There was only one question left: why, according to legend, the moai came to the installation site themselves in an upright position? Thirty years later, the Czech experimental archaeologist Pavel Pavel, together with Heyerdahl, conducted another test, during which 17 natives, armed with ropes, moved a 10-ton moai statue in a standing position in a short time.
Did the Moai cause the island to collapse?
The popular American evolutionary biologist and biogeographer Jared Diamond, based on data obtained by the British researcher John Flanley, in his book "Collapse" expressed confidence that the stone giants led the island to deforestation, which provoked a food crisis, famine and population decline.
The scientist suggested that stone giants were made by two tribes at war with each other, who seemed to be competing in who could install a larger giant. For the leaders of these tribes, moai statues were the only way to demonstrate their power to their neighbor, the ability to satisfy their thirst for superiority.
According to Diamond, the movement of the statues around the island to their destination was carried out using wooden sledges moving on log rails (this method of moving the moai has also been successfully tested).
This required a lot of wood, which eventually led to the depletion of its reserves. Angry at the moai, the inhabitants of the island began to throw them off the platforms, so by the beginning of the 19th century, almost all the statues were toppled.
By the way, the vegetation on the island is indeed quite scarce: grass, sedge, ferns. The area looks devastated: there are no trees or bushes to be seen. But scientists disagree on what led the island to deforestation.
Wrongly accused moai?
Archaeologists Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo strongly disagree with Diamond. They believe that the ancient Rapanui were peaceful sculptors and skilled farmers, and not ambitious forest destroyers at war with each other.
After excavations on the beach of Anakena, they stated: the first inhabitants on the island appeared no earlier than 1200, they simply could not completely lime the forests in 500 years. According to Kant and Lipo, the reason for the death of the forest was Polynesian rats eating the seeds of trees - this is confirmed by the fruits of an extinct giant palm tree found by archaeologists, on which small dents from teeth are visible.
The same researchers put forward the hypothesis that the moai statues moved vertically around the island with the help of a small group of people who did not need wooden devices. Most scientists agreed with this theory, it is also supported by oral folk art and a large number of ancient drawings.
The former governor of the island of Rapanui once told archaeologists that the very shape of the statues made them "upright": the bulging bellies of the statues tilted the figure forward, and the shape of the base made it possible to swing them from side to side.
Hunt and Lipo decided to test this method of movement. The experiment proved that with three strong ropes, 18 people, having adapted themselves, can easily move a 5-ton statue hundreds of meters.
Of course, some of the sculptures moved by the ancient Rapanui were much larger than those involved in the experiment, and the path they faced was more difficult: tens of kilometers through hilly terrain. Apparently, due to all these difficulties, dozens of idols never reached their destination, remained lying along the road leading from the quarry.
Moai statues today
As mentioned above, James Cook, during his visit to the island, noticed that some of the moai were upturned face down - before him, none of the travelers noticed this.
Many scientists attribute the fall of the statues in the early 70s of the 18th century (that is, shortly before Cook's arrival) to the start of a civil war between the "long-eared" and "short-eared" inhabitants of the island. Other researchers claim that earthquakes and tsunamis are to blame.
The last time the standing statues were found by the French squadron, which entered Easter Island in 1830. Since then, none of the Europeans have seen moai statues erected directly by the ancient Rapanui. All the sculptures that exist today on the island were restored in the 20th century. Not so long ago - in the 90s of the last century - their last restoration took place.
By the way, to see the moai, it is not at all necessary to go to distant lands (and the distance from Moscow to Easter Island is almost 16,000 km): the Hoa-Haka-Nana-Ia sculpture, for example, can be found in the British Museum, where it was delivered back in 1868.
But it’s better to visit the island, especially since Rapanui has all the conditions for living and entertaining tourists today: excursions are organized, theaters give performances, museums, shops, restaurants, and clubs work.
But most importantly, there is an opportunity to plunge into history, experience a whole range of emotions at the sight of powerful giants, feel the spirit of the ancient Rapanui people, and maybe even recharge with the sacred power of the island - mana - for many years to come. Easter Island is always waiting for its travelers!
The statues of Easter Island attract the attention of many tourists with their specific performance. Some of them can be seen in the largest museums in the world, but it is best to go to Chile and walk among the idols, admiring their scale and variety. It is believed that they were made in the interval from 1250 to 1500. However, the secret of creating sculptures is still passed from mouth to mouth.
Statues of Easter Island and their main characteristics
Many people wonder how many statues of this type exist and where these huge bodies came from on a small island. At the moment, 887 sculptures of different sizes, made in the same style, have been discovered. They are also called moai. True, it is possible that excavations, carried out from time to time on Easter Island, will lead to the discovery of additional idols that the local tribes have not set in place. 
The material for the manufacture of stone statues is tuffite - a rock of volcanic origin. 95% of the moai are made from tuff, extracted from the Rano Raraku volcano, which is located on Easter Island. Only a few of the idols are made from other breeds:
- trachyta - 22 statues;
- pumice of the Ohio volcano - 17;
- basalt - 13;
- mujierite of Rano Kao volcano - 1.
Many sources provide unreliable information regarding the mass of moai, as they calculate it taking into account the fact that they are made of basalt, and no less dense basalt rock - tuffite. Nevertheless, the average weight of the statues reaches 5 tons, so contemporaries often speculate how such heavy figures were moved from the quarry to their current location. 
The size of the statues of Easter Island varies from 3 to 5 meters, and their base is 1.6 meters wide. Only a few statues reach a height of over 10 meters and a weight of about 10 tons. All of them belong to a later period. These statues are distinguished by elongated heads. In the photo it seems that they convey the facial features of the Caucasoid race, but in fact the physiognomy repeats the features of the Polynesians. Such distortion was resorted to for the sole purpose of increasing the height of the statues.
Questions Asked When Seeing a Moai
Firstly, many are interested in why the statues are scattered throughout the island and what their purpose is. Most of the idols are set on ahu - burial platforms. The ancient tribes believed that moai absorb the power of outstanding ancestors and later help their descendants from the other world. 
There is a legend that the leader of the Hotu Matu’a clan became the founder of the tradition of erecting idols, who ordered, after his death, to install a statue on Easter Island, and to divide the part of the land itself among six sons. It is believed that mana is hidden in idols, which, with proper meditation, can increase crops, bring prosperity to the tribe, and give strength. 
Secondly, it seems that it is impossible to transfer such boulders from the volcano to quite remote places through the jungle. Many put forward various hypotheses, but the truth turned out to be much simpler. In the second half of the 20th century, a traveler from Norway, Thor Heyerdahl, turned to the leader of the "long-eared" tribe. He tried to find out what the statues were called, what they were for, and how they were made. As a result, the whole process was described in detail and even reproduced as an example for visiting researchers.
Heyerdahl wondered why the production technology had previously been hidden from everyone, but the leader only replied that before this period, no one asked about moai and did not ask to see how they were made. At the same time, according to tradition, the nuances of the technique for creating statues of Easter Island are passed on from the elders to the younger, so it has not been forgotten to this day. 
In order to knock moai out of volcanic rock, it is necessary to make special hammers with which the figures are beaten off. Upon impact, the hammer shatters, so hundreds of such tools had to be created. After the idol was ready, it was manually pulled out by a huge number of people with the help of ropes and pulled to the ahu. At the burial site, stones were placed under the statue and with the help of logs, using the lever method, they installed it in the required place.
At an early stage in the development of civilization, it was common for people around the world to install megalithic structures. Let us recall at least Stonehenge in the UK, numerous dolmens or phallus-like blocks. But from this series of ancient megaliths, those that Easter Island is famous for stand out. The statues erected there amazed the Europeans from the very beginning. And they continue to amaze me to this day. After all, their secret has not yet been fully unraveled. In addition, the question of where the first people came to this small piece of land, lost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, three thousand kilometers from the mainland, has not been disclosed. In this article, we will briefly talk about the secrets of Easter Island. After all, this land is simply overflowing with attractions.
Where is Easter Island
Moai statues were the first to be met in 1722 by European navigators. The ship under the leadership of Captain Jakob Roggeven moored to unknown shores on Holy Week, so it was decided to name the island in honor of the upcoming holiday. The natives themselves called their land Te-Pito-o-Te-Khenua, Rapa-Nui and Mata-Ki-Te-Range. But the word Pascha (Pascua) was more familiar to the ear of Europeans, and on all maps of the world the island appears that way. It is located in the eastern corner of the Pacific Ocean and is a triangle of land with a face length of no more than twenty-four kilometers. The island is of volcanic origin, so it is mountainous. The highest point is 539 meters above sea level. Administratively, this land belongs to Chile, although it is three thousand six hundred kilometers away from the nearest city of Valparaiso. Easter Island has a wonderful climate conducive to a measured rest. The waters near its shores are warmed up to + 24 degrees all year round, and the beaches are strewn with interesting pinkish sand. But the main attraction that attracts many tourists to Easter Island is the statues.
The history of the discovery of a lost civilization
The Dutch navigator J. Roggeven was the first to suggest that the idols rising along the entire coast of Rapa Nui could not have been made by the natives whom he found. The people who inhabited the island at the beginning of the eighteenth century reached the level of development of primitive society. They had primitive tools, and it was doubtful that they could make such sculptures and deliver them from the quarries to the shore. Roggeven spent only a day on the island, but he managed to observe how the natives sat around the idol, lit a fire and sang ritual songs. A second expedition led by Felipe González arrived in 1770. The Spaniards suggested that stone idols were brought here from the mainland. But who delivered the statues to Easter Island and from where? Excavations carried out in the 20th century helped to establish that the moai are of local origin. A quarry was also found. It was located in the crater of the extinct volcano Rano Raraku.
mysterious people
The statues of Easter Island, whose photos are the hallmark of this Chilean province, are not the only mystery of these places. Even the first sailors described what they found among the natives of representatives of three races. There were blacks, and Asians, and people with completely white skin. J. Cook guessed to bring a Polynesian with him to the island, who somehow managed to communicate with the locals. They said that twenty-two generations ago, their leader Hotu Matua arrived here. But from where - they could not really say. The natives also explained that the stone statues on Easter Island are not images of gods, but of their former rulers, whose souls continue to take care of their descendants. Where did its first inhabitants sail to the lost island? Many hypotheses have been put forward in the scientific world. Opinions were expressed that the natives came from Egypt, India, Scandinavia, the Caucasus and even the disappeared Atlantis. Thor Heyerdahl made a successful attempt to sail to the islands of Polynesia from the coast of Peru on a primitive raft, but this does not yet prove the Aztec origin of the inhabitants of Rapa Nui.
Statues in Easter Island
Moai knowingly caused a stir among researchers and gave rise to so many scientific hypotheses. After all, it was not the very presence of megalithic sculptures that was strange, but the fact that the existing primitive society could not create them in any way. First of all, the size of stone idols is impressive. The height of most of them is about ten meters, and the average weight is fifteen tons. The largest statue reaches parameters of 21 meters and 90 tons. How could hunters and gatherers carve them out of solid rock and take them to their destination? All this gave rise to the esoteric hypothesis that the statues were brought to Easter Island by aliens from outer space. No less interesting is the appearance of the moai. Long-eared, with flat cheekbones - they do not look like any of the human races. Some idols are decorated with imitation tattoos or necklaces. Others wear a strange stone headdress on their heads.
What the excavations have shown
Modern research has brought some clarity to the question of the origin of the moai. It turned out that the idols do not belong to a civilization that existed thousands and even millions of years ago. They were installed from the 10th to the 16th century. And they were carved in the crater of an extinct volcano Rano Raraku. And most of the statues remained in the quarry. A few more were broken in transit. The sculptures were transported using ropes and platforms with rotating rollers. Work began with the face and headgear. The eyes of the idols were filled with white coral and black obsidian. But the bodies of the statues from Easter Island were more stylized.
Mysterious tablets
Modern archaeologists have also discovered something that, unlike idols, was not visible to anyone, and even from afar. They were wooden boards covered with inscriptions. And these artifacts, most likely, were brought. Because there is not a single tree on the island. Unfortunately, the mentioned texts have not yet been deciphered. What is written on the tablets is still a mystery. Basically, it seems that in the tenth century, representatives of a more developed civilization arrived on Easter Island. Gradually, society, due to extreme isolation, degraded. The inhabitants forgot the script and stopped creating new moai.
Other attractions
What else is able to surprise the traveler Easter Island? Statues (excavations have found about 300 more, sprinkled with volcanic alluvium) are not the only attraction of this lost piece of land. Take at least the pedestals on which these stone idols are installed. It is believed that these are tombstones, on which from one to several statues were ritually erected. In the administrative center of Hanga Roa, you can get acquainted with the history of Easter Island. It is also recommended to visit the Au Tahai fortress. Modern Easter Island is a piece of paradise lined with luxury hotels.
Location: Chile, Easter Island
Made by: between 1250 - 1500 years
Coordinates: 27°07"33.7"S 109°16"37.2"W
Short description
Easter Island is lost in the Pacific Ocean at a distance of 4000 km from Chile. The closest neighbors - the inhabitants of Pitcairn Island - live 2000 km from here.
Easter Island got its unusual name for a reason: it was discovered by a Dutch navigator on Easter Sunday morning, April 5, 1722. The landscapes of the island are extinct volcanoes, mountains, hills and meadows. There are no rivers here, the main source of fresh water is rainwater that accumulates in the craters of volcanoes. The Paschalians call their island "The Navel of the Earth" (Te-Pito-te-henua). This secluded and isolated corner from the rest of the world attracts scientists, mystics, lovers of secrets and mysteries.
First of all, Easter Island is famous for its giant stone statues in the form of a human head, they are called "moai". Silent idols weighing up to 200 tons and up to 12 meters high stand with their backs to the ocean. A total of 997 statues have been discovered on Easter Island. All moai are monolithic. The craftsmen carved them from soft volcanic tuff (pumice) in a quarry on the slopes of the Rano Roraku volcano. Some of the statues have been moved to the ritual platform (“ahu”) and added with a red stone cap (pukau). According to scientists, moai once had eyes: squirrels were laid out from coral, and pupils from sparkling pieces of volcanic glass.
Obviously, the installation of statues required a huge amount of labor. According to legend, the idols walked by themselves. However, the hypotheses, confirmed by scientific experiments, prove that the inhabitants of the island and no one else moved the moai, but it has not yet been determined exactly how they did it. In 1956, the Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl experimented with moving a moai statue by hiring a team of Easter Island natives who successfully reproduced all the stages of making and installing a moai.
Armed with stone axes, the natives carved a 12-ton statue, and, grabbing onto the ropes, began to pull it along the ground. And in order not to damage the fragile giant, the islanders made a wooden sled to prevent it from rubbing against the ground. With the help of wooden levers and stones placed under the base of the statue, it was hoisted onto a platform-pedestal.
In 1986, the Czech explorer P. Pavel, together with Thor Heyerdahl, organized an additional test in which a group of 17 natives set the 20-ton statue upright fairly quickly using ropes.
"A petrified world with its petrified inhabitants"
The settlement of Easter Island began in 300 - 400 years by immigrants from East Polynesia. According to another version, proposed by Thor Heyerdahl, the first inhabitants of the island were settlers from Ancient Peru. Crossing the Pacific Ocean from the coast of South America to Polynesia on a wooden raft "Kon-Tiki", the Norwegian scientist proved that even in the conditions of an ancient civilization, the American Indians could overcome large expanses of water.
The indigenous population of Easter Island belonged to two tribes - "long-eared", which created the moai, and "short-eared". The "long-ears" got their name because they wore heavy jewelry in their ears, sometimes so large that the earlobes were pulled down to their shoulders. Paschalians believed that the supernatural power of their clan, called "mana", was contained in stone statues. In the beginning, the long-eared and short-eared lived in peace and harmony with each other, but their later history was marked by a series of brutal wars caused by food shortages.
Because of the drought, crops were declining, there were not enough trees to make boats from which it was possible to fish. Now moai were identified with the image of the enemy, and the statues were destroyed by rival tribes. There are many theories regarding the purpose of the moai. Perhaps these were island gods etched in stone, or portraits of the leaders who ruled the island. According to Thor Heyerdahl, the statues depict white Indians who arrived on the island from Latin America.. In the era of cultural prosperity (XVI-XVII centuries), up to 20 thousand people lived on Easter Island.
After the arrival of Europeans, the population declined, many Easterlings were taken to Peru for hard labor. Today the island is inhabited by about 4,000 people. The living conditions of the islanders have improved significantly, an airport has been built, and tourists bring a small income. But Easter Island still seems deserted, as in the days of Thor Heyerdahl's research, when the Norwegian saw "some kind of petrified world with its petrified inhabitants."
