Stunning Easter Island
The sights on Easter Island are spectacular. Specifically the quarry, where dozens of moai, stone heads, are scattered all over the place. The consensus (though more recently questioned) is that the quarry was abandoned when Rapa Nui society imploded but that, normally, after completion, the heads would be transported, from the quarry, to their final destination, typically somewhere along the perimeter of the island, looking inland.
Several moai, only partially constructed, still stuck, incomplete, inside the volcanic rock on the outside of the crater, make it clear that Rano Raraku is the birth place of the moao. What makes less sense, or, is more impressive, is that several moai are actually inside the extinct volcano, though construction seems to have happened on the outside.
Virtually all moai are on the island's shore, except for a group of seven which used to overlook a settlement and are about perhaps 3 kilometres inland, and the statues inside the volcano crater at Rano Raraku.
Plenty theories have been put forward on how the statues were moved, including some esoteric ones. Overhearing a guide showing a group of Americans around, he explained to his group that the most likely method was levitation. Besides this obviously being unprovable, I would think that if these guys were able to levitate tons of stone, they would have also built themselves better housing and, more importantly, levitated themselves off the island.
It is thought that the maoi represent forefathers, looking over, protecting, the islanders. If they represented forefathers from before the arrival of the islanders, the moai were like the ancestors they left behind on islands across the horizon, keeping an eye on them, ensuring their safety.
The sight of the many statues, some tilted over, on the slopes of the crater, is dramatic and spectacular. Walking around the site is a once in a lifetime experience.
Around the island, the moai that are not standing but have fallen over, have been cordoned off to make sure tourists can't come too close. But, here and there on the island, a few of the statues seem to have been overlooked, just lying around, on their own, in some hidden corner.
The second most impressive site on the island is a stone's throw away from the quarry, where a line of 15 Moai are looking at the mountain which they presumably were carved out of.