Rano Raraku is a site on the slope of a volcano (PiP1 and 2), which was the statue ‘factory’ of Easter Island. It was the birthplace of a Neolithic culture’s progency. This is the quarry, where the moai (monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people) were carved in the volcanic rock and transported over the island.

There are still about 400 statues in various states of completion (PiP 3,4 and 5): from rectangular blocks barely discernable in the rock face to mostly completed moai, held in the matrix of the rock by a mere keel, to completed moai standing largely buried on the slope. Among them the unique kneeling moai Tukuturi (PiP6) with a shape and design different from all other moai and Te Tokanga or Ko Teto Kena, the largest moai ever carved with a height of 20 meters and weight of (estimated) 270 tons (PiP7).

More pictures of Easter Island: www.ipernity.com/doc/294067/43947814 and www.ipernity.com/doc/294067/45938804