The imposing statues that line the coast of Easter Island have been an enigma ... The volcanic stone figures, called moai in the island’s native Polynesian language, are understood to have ...

Easter Island is home to approximately 1,000 large stone heads, known as Moai, scattered across the island. Hancock argues that the island was settled, and the statues were built about 12,000 ...

Hancock estimates that the statues on Easter Island, known as Moai heads, are likely much older than the platforms, called Ahu Vinapu, on which many of them sit because the structures exhibit ...

Archaeologist and Easter Island expert Jo Anne Van Tilburg believes the moai were built to honor ancestors and chieftains, or for ritual use to commune with gods, she told PBS. National Geographic ...

Easter Island is known for these iconic Moai statues, as well as mysteries surrounding the inhabitants of the island. Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news ...

On average, they stand 13 feet high and weigh 14 tons, human heads-on-torsos carved in the male form from rough hardened volcanic ash. The islanders call them "moai," and they have puzzled ...

Among the many secrets buried in Easter Island prehistory is the question of how the Rapanui people transported the multi-ton statues, or moai, from their quarries to their final ceremonial ahu ...

There is no place in the world like Easter Island ... by the hundreds of massive moai, monolithic statues carved from volcanic rocks that are found across the island. These monoliths are just ...

This story appears in the July 2012 issue of National Geographic magazine. On a winter night last June, José Antonio Tuki, a 30-year-old artist on Easter Island, did one of the things he loves ...