Two shots of Tongariki. One isolating the last standing statue still with it's top hat there. There were originally 18 statues all with top hats but a tidal wave in 1960 wiped out all but one of the top hats, which balance on the heads. The wave also destroyed three statues.
We saw these three horses stand over the lifeless foul for about 30 minutes. But when we passed by again an hour later we saw the foul struggled to it's feet with the gentle nudge of one of its guardians.
The south side of the Rano Raraku crater was used as the quarry source for all of the statues, and from here the stones were 'walked', dragged or carried to their final resting sites. There are about 1,000 statues over the island and almost 400 of these are here in various states of progress. You get a feeling they are looking at you as you walk about the hillside. It is like walking through a park of giants. The locals think the place is sacred. Most of the statues were also carved standing upright and most scholars including Sergio believe they were 'wobbled' side-to-side standing upright with thousands of men using ropes of vine or dried seaweed ropes to their final positions. This supports the islanders stories that the statues 'walked' to their positions. How you would do this for 15 kms up and down hills with a 10m high 60 ton block of stone though is quite hard to believe.
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