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Enormous statues of people - the moai are from 4 feet to 33 feet tall. Some of them weigh more than 80 tons. They are hundreds of years old. The moai are made of a type of stone that doesn't exist on Anakena beach. People made the statues in a different place and then they moved them miles to the beach. «How did they do it?»
The first Polynesians arrived at Rapa Nui (Easter Island) by canoe hundreds of years ago, This small island is 2150 miles west of South America, These days 12 flights arrive every week from Chile, Peru, and Tahiti. 50 000 tourists flew to Easter Island in 2011. All the tourists go to see the moai.
Some historians think the ancestors used ropes and wood and pulled the statues along the ground. The scientist and writer Jared Diamond thinks that many people moved the statues. He also thinks that the people cut down the trees on the island. They needed the wood to move the statues. They also needed a lot of space without trees to grow food. There was an environmental disaster on the island because they cut down the trees.
But archaeologists of Hawaii and California Universities, Hunt and Lipo, don't agree with Jared Diamond. They say that it was possible to move the statues with a small number of people and a system of ropes. Last year National Geographic Expeditions Council paid for an experiment to test Hunt and Lipo's idea. |
