Easter Island Attractions
Isle AttractionsEaster Island Moai, Chile's attractions
AHOME ⢠CHILE â DISCOVER CHILE â Easter Island â The Moai Moai are sculptures of condensed volcano fly on Rapa Nui (Easter Island). All of the sculptures are monolithically made. Fewer than a fifth of the sculptures that were taken to and then placed on ceremony places had scarlet cylinder stones on top of their head.
These" knots", as they are often known, were cut in a stone pit named Puna Pau. Approximately 95% of the 887 mai known so far were cut from compacted volcano ash in Rano Raraku, where 394 mai can still be seen today. Newer inland GPS maps will certainly bring extra mai.
It seems that the Rano Raraku quarry was left suddenly, many imperfect sculptures are still in use. Virtually all finished mai laid by Rano Raraku and placed erect on ceremony decks were overthrown by local inhabitants in the post-construction time. Though usually only called "heads", the mai are actually one-piece figurines with headings and cut off torsi.
Over the last few years, fallen mai have been found unaffected and face down. As a result, it was discovered that the mai' s renowned deeper orbits were meant to keep the corals' tears. The replica eyeballs were built and placed in some sculptures for photograph. Its most widespread theorem is that the sculptures were engraved by the island's Polynesians from around 1000-1100 AD.
Besides depicting dead forefathers, the mai, once erected in ceremony places, may also have been considered the incarnation of mighty chief. Sculpted by a prestigious professionally trained carver, the carvings were similar in rank to high-ranking members of other Polish craftsmen.
Not only would the carvings of each sculpture take a lot of time and money, but the completed piece was brought to its definitive place. It' s not known exactly how the mai have been moving, but the whole operation almost certainly requires manpower, cables, wooden sleds and/or sheaves.
A different hypothesis is that the mai may have "walked" by being rocked forward. In the middle of the 18th century, all the mai outside Rano Raraku and many inside the pit itself had been overturned. Today, about 50 mai have been rebuilt on their ceremony places. Old island legend speaks of a chieftain named Hotu Matu'a, who abandoned his native country in quest of a new one.
We now know the place he has chosen as Easter Island. After his death, the island was split between his six children and later split between their heirs. Archipelago inhabitants may have thought that their sculptures would catch the "mana" (supernatural forces) of the chieftains. You may have thought that the concentration of qigong on the island would create good things, cause rains to drop and harvests to increase.
The Rano Raraku is a volcano craters, which consists of solid tufa or solid craters. It is situated on Easter Island in Chile. This is the stone pit where about 95% of the island's famous moai (monolithic sculpture) was made. This reed, once brought to the island by discoverers from the continental United States, is now known to have been brought to the island in a natural way some 30,000 years ago.
The Rano Raraku is classified into 5 archeological areas, and since 1981 a collection of 397 sculptures on the inner and outer hillsides and in the outer stone pits has been recorded. The use of Rano Raraku lasted 500-1000 years, probably until after the island was discovered in Europe in 1722.
It is a valuable and important part of the Rapanui heritage and a source of information on the terminology of statuary creation and invention.