A small piece of Chilean land in the middle of Polynesia, this islet measuring 24 kilometers long and 12 kilometers wide has always fascinated mystics and esotericists from all over the planet. There are many reasons for this, starting with its triangular shape, with a volcanic crater at each end. Its main star, however, are the moai, those famous stone sculptures erected to worship ancestors who had distinguished themselves as kings, warriors or priests. The civilization that sculpted them reached its peak between 1400 and 1600, leaving around 900 moai scattered across the island.
WHERE DID THEY COME FROM
It is believed that the ancestors of the Easter people were the same ones who created the sailboats called catamarans until today and left Indonesia, around 8000 BC, to populate the entire South Pacific. It took them 9,000 years to reach the extremes of Polynesia: Easter , New Zealand and Hawaii. In 1947, the Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl became famous trying to prove that the people of Easter were originally from Peru, making the opposite journey in a reed canoe. But today genetic studies indicate that they did come from the East, by the route above
THE BIRDMAN RITUAL
Strange drawings of bird-headed figures are seen on rocks on the rim of the Rano Kau crater. The site was the center of the Birdman ritual, in which the best warriors from each tribe would leap off a cliff to swim to three islets where a migratory bird made its nest. The first to return with an egg of this bird was declared a birdman and his tribe ruled the island for a year.
A PORT MADE OF STONES
The most important archaeological center on the island is made up of three Moai altars. There are also the remains of a port, with a ramp all paved with stone, used to launch canoes and catamarans into the sea. In the excavations, the foundations of several small stone houses emerged, which were the main dwelling of the people of Pascoa, along with the caves of the island.
AHU AKIVI
The first moai altar to be restored, back in the 60s, is the only one in the interior of the island, and also the only one facing the sea
RANO RARAKU CRATER
On the slopes of this crater, all the moais were carved. There are still more than 300 of them, many incomplete, stuck in the quarry.
AHU NAU NAU
The Moai altar next to Anakena beach has some of the best preserved statues on the island, with excellent definition of facial features, arms, hands and abdomen
AHU TONGARIKI
The largest of all the altars on the island, measuring 200 m in length and containing 15 moais. It was destroyed by a tsunami in 1960 and restored 30 years later.
IS WRITTEN. JUST DON’T KNOW WHAT
It wasn’t just the Egyptians who had hieroglyphs. The Easter Islanders used a similar system: rongo-rongo, the only written language in all of Polynesia engraved on wooden tablets. To this day, no one has been able to decipher what these symbols mean.
CAPILLARY CYLINDER
It looks like a hat, but it represents the hair tied in a bun, as people used to wear it in the old days. The prop, called a pukao, was carved into a crater of red rock.
THE BASIS OF THE CULT
The platform on which the moai were erected, called ahu, served as an altar in ancestor worship. There are signs that it was also used as a crematorium.
1. All moais were carved in the crater of the Rano Raraku volcano, directly on its slopes of volcanic ash, a more malleable rock that is easier to carve, but less resistant. Once ready, it is believed that they were placed upright in order to be prepared for transport, one of the most delicate operations
2. The biggest mystery on the island has always been how the moais were transported to the altars on the coast, up to 10 kilometers away. The most accepted theory was demonstrated by the archaeologist Jo Anne Van Tilburg, attaching the statues to forks made of tree trunks and vegetable fiber ropes.
3. The last touch was the placement of the pukao, the little hat representing the hair, which crowned the moai. The statue was then finally erected on the altar platform, with the help of stacked stones.