Moai 12-18 to 12-22, 2013

Moai on one of the two beaches on Easter Island.

This Moai is the only historic one that has eyes but
 they are not the originals they are copies.

Our family next to a huge row of Mowai.

15 Moai all in a row
 all of them are whole except for one which
has no face.

                                                   


                                                   The quarry were the Mowai were made.

This Moai has not been removed from the rock
it is carved out of but it would have
been 69 feet tall, the biggest
moai that would ever have been lifted but the
natives never made it that far.

These Moai are actually not just heads they are in ditches
that the natives made so they could stand them up and
carve designs on there backs.  These Mowai were abandoned so over the years the holes
have been filled in with dirt[Since they were under ground all the
rest of the Mowai is preserved,
so if you dug one up you would see the most
delicate of the lines still there].

This Moai has had all it's front side carved out
but it's back is still in attached to the mountain.
If the natives had finished it they would have
cut it of the mountain slid it in to a ditch then when
all the designs were done walk it to were it would stand.
The natives walked the Moai by tying
3 ropes around the Moais head were the eyes
should be[they did not carve out the eye sockets and
put in coral eyes till it was were it was meant to stay].
The natives pulled on these ropes in a certain way which
rocked the Moai back and forth, the bottom
of the Moai was carved in a way that when they rocked it
it would teeter in a movement that made it walk.

This Moai is different because it
was the only one made that
had legs.  No one knows why
this Moai was made but
it is interesting[it is still were the
quarry is, it was never moved but it
is finished besides the eyes].

                                                           

Look at how big these are!!!!

This Moai was the largest Moai to stand[36']
and the last one standing.
Why all the Moai fell down is because after many years
on the island the natives broke out in a civil war.  The Moai were made as
a sort of grave stone.  A important person would have one.
 All Moai faced the village of the dead person
when the Moai got it's eye's it was believed
that it was protection for the village.
So when civil war broke out, the different villages pushed
over other villages Moai on their faces so that village
would not have protection.

On this Moai you can still see
the hand carved on it.

This Moai is the traveling Moai because when the first european ships came
the men wanted to show the rest of the world so they
took this one.  But it was brought back and restored.

You would think that these were hats for the Moai but they are
not.  They are really suppose to represent the hair do of the
native men[they are called top knots].

These statues are amazing.