Rapa Nui

Just watched a programme on the Polynesian Easter Island or Rapa Nui, supposed to throw new light on the reasons behind the toppling of these amazing Moai figures.

We were lucky enough to visit the island on our retirement trip, several years ago, and heard an islander’s account of the building and destruction of the Moai. In spite of the claims, the programme appeared to ignore the oral history of the people. At some point after the island was discovered by Europeans, on Easter Sunday, 5 April 1722, all the statues were toppled or lowered from their platforms. It wasn’t until the 1960’s that some Moai started to be re-erected. Some of them have top-knots carved from quite a different type of red rock, and some of these have been replaced too, as in this picture the first 4 have their top knots intact.

There were some new insights into how the Moai may have been moved from the quarry where they were carved to the ahu platforms where they stood for centuries. Not all of them on rollers as previously thought, but some of them appear to have been moved standing upright, by rocking in such a way that they looked as if they were walking. To prove this theory, the programme demonstrated how it could be done.

I absolutely loved our visit, it was magical and the ancientness of the landscape was palpable. Great to see it again, I don’t suppose I’ll ever get there again – it is 2,200 miles from Chile where we travelled from, and approx. 2,600 miles from Tahiti where we went next.