MOAI OF EASTER ISLAND

Carved Volcanic Moai Statues of Easter Island

Rapa Nui or Easter Island is a volcanic island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific. The island sits atop the Rano Kau Ridge and is built from the remains of three extinct volcanoes. Most of the rock here is hawaiite, an olivine basalt intermixed with iron-rich basalts, mafic extrusive igneous rocks formed from the rapid cooling of iron-rich lava near the islands core.

It is one of the most isolated inhabited islands now famous for its rows of carved moai statues. These quiet sentinels were carved by the islands' first inhabitants.

Sometime around 1200 AD, people from Polynesia began to settle on the island. It looked much different back then. There were lovely forests on the island and those first settlers build a thriving community and culture. A series of unfortunate events devastated the island and the population. Rats, deforestation, the slave trade and finally disease took their toll. But those early settlers are not forgotten. For one of the world's most isolated islands, it is still visited today to visit their greatest legacies — 887 towering carved figures, moai, made from the islands' volcanic rock. They quarried and carved the rock then moved their sculptures to a platform on the water's edge where they are visited and revered to this day.