Easter Island Moai Statues Erected

Between approximately 1250 and 1500 CE, the Rapa Nui people carved and transported 887 monolithic stone statues called moai on Easter Island in the southeastern Pacific. Quarried from volcanic tuff at Rano Raraku crater, the statues average four meters in height and weigh approximately ten metric tonnes. The Rapa Nui placed completed moai on stone platforms called ahu along the island's coastline. The statues represented deified ancestors whose spiritual power, or mana, was believed to protect living communities.