Easter Island – An Fascinating Island Of Wonder.
The desolate Easter Island suddenly became a landing spot, 1200 years ago, for a group of people in a canoe. In the next few hundred years an amazing civilization grew all alone there. For their own still unknown purposes they decided to carve statues from volcanic rocks. People are amazed when they see or hear about these monuments called moai. The Rapa Nui, as they called themselves, suddenly disappeared. What was the identity of these people and what happened to them? Science has studied a lot about the Easter Island mystery and as a result has solved or debunked some of the stranger ideas, but the mystery continues.Click through here for extra info on tribal cross tattoo.
There is scientific proof for one of the more bazaar stories of the origin of the people of Easter Island. In the 16th century a Spanish vessel named San Lesmems disappeared in the vicinity of Tahiti. Supposedly some of the survivors, Basque people, bred with the local Polynesians. These survivors or their descendants left Tahiti in the hopes of returning to Spain in the early 17th century they never made it. Basque genes were found in some Rapa Nui people.
Easter Island is most renowned for inhabitants that are its huge stone statues, moai, at least 288 once standing on gigantic stone platforms named ahu. These 250 ahu form a line all around the island, each one placed about mile from the next. 600 more moai statues, most in one way or another incomplete, are laying around the island, either still amongst the rocks from which they were cut or on the side of ancient roads that connect quarries with the coast where the completed statues are found.
Volcanic stone from the Rano Raraku Volcano is the source of almost every one of the moai. The average height of the moai is 14 feet, 6 inches with a weight of 14 tons. The largest statues top 33 feet and weigh an incredible 80 tons one was found incomplete, 65 feet long and if finished approximated at nearly 270 tons. Trees were cut and used as rollers so up to 150 men could bring the various sized statues to their final resting places.
You should find additional invaluable info on tribal arm tattoos here.
Why the statues were created on Easter Island is still a mystery. It could be that the Easter Island moai were similar to statues found around Polynesia, but with their construction and purpose changed by local customs.
No tags for this post.
Tags: 
