The restored moai statues of Ahu Tongariki are one of the more spectacular sites on Easter Island. Rano Raraku may have more moai, but most are partially buried, uncompleted, or face down in the ...

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 ...

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles from any continent, Easter Island rises out of the sea. Its surface ...

According to archaeologist Jo Anne Van Tilburg—who is the founder of UCLA's Easter Island Statue Project and has studied the artifacts for nearly 30 years—about 95 percent of the statues were ...

The main quarry for Easter Island's statues, this volcanic crater is a ... Most remarkably, at the base of the quarry, moai stand half buried in the slope—up to their chins and noses—from ...

He’s a Rapanui, an indigenous Polynesian resident of Rapa Nui, as the locals call Easter Island; his own ancestors probably helped carve some of the hundreds of statues that stud the island’s ...

It's Rapa Nui - Easter Island - the most remote inhabited island ... and its placement - those are all things that matter." The statues were placed on specially built platforms ranged along ...