Easter Island

EASTER ISLAND

The most striking feature of the island is the moai, over 900 large stone statues, between 6 and 33 feet high. Construction of the moai is thought to have begun 1000-1100 AD and ended 1680 AD. Each was carved out of the Rano Raraku quarry, a volcanic crater on Rapanui. More than 300 unfinished moai are still in place. The largest unfinished statue at Rano Raruku is over 60 feet tall. Moai were moved by the islanders distances of up to 10 miles to prepared sites all over the island, set upright.

There are more mysteries on Easter Island than just giant heads. Easter Island is one of the few areas of the Pacific that developed an indigenous written language. The rongorongo script is a beautiful artistic creation that was carved in hieroglyphic-like characters on wooden tablets. It has yet to be definitively deciphered, and unfortunately nineteenth-century missionaries to Easter Island encouraged the natives to burn most of the ronogoronogo tablets.

On Easter Sunday, April 5th, 1722, a Dutch sea captain by the name of Jacob Roggeveen landed his ship on an island known as Te Pito o Te Henua, meaning "The Center of the World." Captain Roggeveen renamed this mysterious stretch of land, Easter Island. At first, Polynesian travelers populated the island, but as the population increased, the food chain deteriated, resulting in famine and in some cases cannibalism.