Moai

ancient history · pacific islands · mysterious · giant statues

Massive stone heads. Moai are enormous statues carved from stone by the Rapa Nui people between 1250 and 1500 on an island called Rapa Nui in the Pacific Ocean. Almost all of them have huge heads that take up more than a third of their entire body.

Island masterpiece. Nearly half of all moai still sit at Rano Raraku, the quarry where they were carved, but hundreds of others were moved to stone platforms called ahu around the island's edge. No one fully understands how the ancient people managed to transport these heavy statues across the island.

Ancestor faces. The moai represented the faces of deified ancestors, meaning they were carved to honor important people from the past and keep their memory alive. Each statue was like a frozen reminder of someone special to the community.

More than stone. The Rapa Nui people didn't only carve large stone moai, they also created smaller wooden versions called moꞌai, including male and female figures. These wooden statues show the artists were skilled carvers who worked with many different materials.

Mystery remains. We still don't know exactly why the people stopped building moai or what happened to their civilization, making these statues one of the ocean's greatest puzzles.