Others stand upright with their head and shoulders above ground while their bodies remain buried ... spectacular sites on Easter Island. Rano Raraku may have more moai, but most are partially ...

According to a survey by archeologist Jo Anne Van Tilburg, the Easter Islanders successfully transported 288 moai ... have a limited stock of energy and must be fed sweet potatoes (an island ...

The imposing statues that line the coast of Easter Island have ... stone figures, called moai in the island’s native Polynesian language, are understood to have been carved between the years ...

Among the many secrets buried in Easter ... or moai, from their quarries to their final ceremonial ahu sites around the island. In many cases, the optimum route of transport would have meant ...

Archaeologist and Easter Island expert Jo Anne Van Tilburg believes the moai were built to honor ancestors and chieftains, or for ritual use to commune with gods, she told PBS. National Geographic ...

There is no place in the world like Easter ... have long been fascinated by the hundreds of massive moai, monolithic statues carved from volcanic rocks that are found across the island.

This story appears in the July 2012 issue of National Geographic magazine. On a winter night last June, José Antonio Tuki, a 30-year-old artist on Easter Island, did one of the things he loves ...

Rapa Nui, the indigenous name of Easter Island, bears witness to a unique cultural phenomenon ... this society built shrines and erected enormous stone figures known as moai, which created an ...