Description of the attraction
Moai are monolithic human figures carved from stone between 1250 and 1500 and located on the Chilean Easter Island (Rapa Nui). Almost half of them are still located on the outer slopes of the Rano Raraku crater of the extinct Terevaka volcano. Some are half buried, some are still "under construction", and hundreds have been removed from there and set up on stone platforms called ahu, around the perimeter of the island. Almost all moai have oversized heads, three-eighths of the size of the entire statue. Moai have mostly living faces of deified ancestors.
Tall moai are called "paro" - they are almost 10 m high and weigh more than 80 tons. One unfinished sculpture, when completed, would be approximately 21 m high and weigh about 270 tons. The average height of moai is about 4 m, diameter is 1.6 m. These massive creations, as a rule, weigh 12, 5 tons.
All 53,887 moai known to date were carved from the tuff (compressed volcanic ash) of Rano Raruku. There are also 13 moai carved from basalt, 22 from trachyte and 17 from brittle red slag.
Easter Island statues are known for their large, wide noses and massive chin, rectangular ears and deep eye slits. Their bodies are usually squatting, with arms, no legs.
In 1979, Sergio Rapu Haoa and a team of archaeologists discovered that hemispherical or deep elliptical eye sockets were designed to hold coral eyes, with either black or red pupils from the slag. But over time, the colored pupils of the statues were lost.
Some of the moai wore pukao caps on their heads and were carved from red volcanic slag (a very light slag from the Puna Pau quarry). Red is considered a sacred color in Polynesia. The addition of the pukao hat raised the status of the moai.
Many archaeologists speculate that moai statues are symbols of power and strength, both religious and political. Archaeologists believe that the statues were the epitome of ancient Polynesian ancestors. The moai statues, which are turned away from the ocean and turned towards the villages, seem to be watching people. The exception is the seven Ahu Akivi, which look out to sea to help travelers find the island. There is a legend that says that there were seven people who were waiting for their king to arrive safely on the island of Rapa Nui.
