Why were the Easter Island Statues Built

It was different for Huke this one. At the fracturing place his own forefathers had been laid to rest. "They were related to my family," recalls Huke, an architectural, of that year. Easter Island's civilisation crumbled hundreds of years ago, but the statues that remain remind us of how mighty it must have been.

Now many of the remnants of this civilisation can be wiped out, the United Nations warn, as increasing ocean level quickly erodes the shores of Easter Island. Most of the statues of Moais and almost all statues of Eagle Nest, the platform, which in many cases also serves as gravediggers, surround the island.

The fate of the island' s inhabitants is similar throughout the Pacific and on its edges, in places such as the minute Marshall Islands, which disappear under the ocean, and in the dwindling city of Jakarta, Indonesia, where roads become streams after a storm. Rapa Nui, the name of Easter Island in Polynesia, many of which have been declared a UNESCO Cultural Patrimony, threatens the past and the present.

of the island's entirety. In the past year this island with only 6,000 inhabitants drew more than 100,000 people. The Easter Island is home to more than $70 million in hotel, restaurant and tourist companies every year. The groups part to Anakena, the only sandstrand on the island, or to the old platform of Akahanga, a vast place of former coastal towns where the island's mythic creator, Hotu Matu'a, is graveled.

This ring road, which passes through much of the triangle-shaped island, shows a different scenery. Losses were quick on Ovahe Bay, near where Huke hit bone in the day. There has been a sand shore for generation that was loved by local people and visitors. In the vicinity were some graves that were not marked and clad with rocks.

In 2066, a timecapsule was to be opened by island residents near the townhall. Inside were paintings of Ovahe Beaches before he dropped all his sands. "They' ll be digging it up in 50 years and seeing us stand where there's no beach," said he.

In a place known as Ura Uranga Te Mahina on the south shore of the island, parking officers were alerted last year when boulders of a rock face crumbled about three meters above a cliffy shore after being hit by wave. "Now it will all come down next," said Rafael Rapu Rapu Rapu, the head archaeologist of Ma'u Henua, pointing to a card with the decks behind the caves.

With part of the 400,000 dollar subsidy from the Japan administration, the officers built a sea barrier to protect against the ripples. However, it is not clear whether the walls are enough to stop the escalation or whether the island guides have to think about removing decks and statues from the cliff.

The park authorities say they are investigating the option of placing woodcarvings on more solid foundations or even transferring them to a monument. Rapu, who was raised on the island, said he regrets the changes in the environment that have affected the area. Looking across the sea, he remembered his father's tales of long walks that came to the island on a regular basis.

Ma'u Henua's director of design, Sebastian Paoa, said he was certain that the island's people would find their way through the challenges of the rise in water level, just as they survive the fall of antiquity. Huke, the arkitect, thinks the same way. To find the bone of his forefathers on the shore is not a reason for desperation, but a call to do.

Over the last few month he has collected information for an evaluation of the effects of climate changes, which should be presented to the authorities, from soil degradation to ground water supplies.