Who made the stone giants on Easter Island?
The early Polynesian inhabitants carved out the colossal moai from rough volcanic ash at the Rano Raraku quarry.
The Moai were pushed overland
and placed in alone or in groups on an ahu - sacred mound.
Most moai stand around 13 feet. The tallest standing moai is over 32 feet tall and weights 82 tons.
The largest carved moai has
never stood upright. At 72 feet long, this 150 ton monster moai still lies
at sleeping at the Rano Raraku Quarry where he was carved.
The ahu encircle the island, their moai standing backs to the sea.
The meaning of the moai have puzzles visitors centuries and continue to spark debate among scientist today. We do know about 1,000 moai were carved. Around 300 of these were placed on ahu's. The rest lie with their partially carved brothers at Rano Raraku or on the trails leading down from the quarry.
The half-formed monuments tell a tale of a society and culture in crisis.
The last moai were created
around 1350 A.D. Scientists have found signs that this is about the same
time that the islands ecology collapsed.
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