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 ...

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 ...

Island has fascinated historians, researchers, and tourists for centuries. Reaching it is not easy; flights from Europe, with ...

A decades-long stretch of extremely low precipitation in the 1500s may have spurred cultural changes among the Rapa Nui ...

By Cook’s time, the islanders had toppled many of their statues and were neglecting those left standing. But the art of Easter ... face. He introduced himself as a descendant of the island ...

The ancient statues known as moai are everyday sights on Easter Island, or Rapa Nui—native ... an American cartoon. Ika wears face paint for ceremonial dances and meals; he makes it himself ...

It bears the face and head of Ellen Price ... Image caption, Hoa Hakananai’a is one of two Easter Island statues in the British Museum collection The Moai were carved by the people of Rapa ...

The moai lay face down on the sledge ... method in rough terrain is 320 feet per day for a 20-ton statue. Moai: Two original Easter Island moais: nine feet, five tons and 13 feet, nine tons.

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 ...

Today we're on an island far out in the Pacific ... frigate birds with human arms and feet face each other, their beaks touching at the back of the statue's neck. On the back of the statue's ...