Easter Island

The famous carvings of Easter Island in Chile.

Photo by: philliecasablanca, Creative Commons

If you look at the world map, you will find that Easter Island is just a small piece of land resting near a huge mass that is called Chile. But despite its size, some people would still put them on top of their list of places to visit when they go to South America. Why so?

This is because the place holds one of the greatest wonders of the world – the moais. For those of you who do not know, moais are huge human statues that are carved from a single rock. They are known to stand over 13 – 14 feet and they can easily weigh nearly a hundred tons. But their height and weight are not the only things that make them special. What makes them more interesting is the fact that the things that we’re seeing now has existed since 1250 to 1500 or maybe even earlier.

So to give recognition to these historical landmarks on Easter Island we will provide you some interesting information that you may want to know about.

• Despite their size and weight, those moais were built where they are standing now. Some archaeologists actually believe that they have been moved from the mountains to near the shores of the island. For some reason, no one has actually figured out how the early residents of Easter Island managed to even budge the monstrosities.

There are theories but they are not really believable because most of them include intervention of aliens.

• If you look at the statues, you would notice that most, if not all of them have extremely large heads. Note however that this proportion is not done for aesthetic purposes only. They are made to look like that because they embody the patriarchal society that was strongly prevalent in that era.

• Currently, there are 15 moais that are restored to their old positions before they were either knocked off by an earthquake or tidal wave. But apart from those, there are actually a couple dozen more moais that are scattered around the island. Some can even be found on the slopes of the mountains where they are supposed to be carved out.

Why were they left unfinished in the first place? No one seems to know why. It’s just that for some reason, the carvers have suddenly stopped and magically disappeared.

Now, after all of those facts, do you still wonder why a lot of people are drawn to Easter Island? Hopefully not.

One response to “Easter Island”

  1. hehe says:

    how do you know that they are un-finished

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