NOVA Online | Secrets of Lost Empires | Easter Island

Rano Raraku

The main quarry for Easter Island's statues, this volcanic crater is a virtual moai graveyard. The stone-faced giants lie in various states of production. Some are half carved, many are broken, and many seem to have been abandoned in mid-transport. Most remarkably, at the base of the quarry, moai stand half buried in the slope—up to their chins and noses—from years of erosion. To some observers the quarry looks like a graveyard of stone giants. It's as if the production of moai was abruptly abandoned, leaving us a frozen snapshot in time so we can look closely at exactly how the moai were carved out of the available rock. This quarry and the nearby transport road is the staging area on which many speculators base their theories on how the moai were transported. Archaeologist Jo Anne Van Tilburg suggests that the moai production in Rano Raraku quarry probably started and stopped often over the years, possibly due to periodic resource shortages or to political disagreements.

Photo of Rano Roraku

QTVR (get QuickTime)

Inside Rano Raraku QTVR

Rano Raraku Rim QTVR

Rano Raraku Moai QTVR 1

Rano Raraku Moai QTVR 2

Rano Raraku Moai QTVR 3

Object QTVR (get QuickTime)

Rano Raraku Moai QTVR 4

High res (512K)
Low res (151K)
Photograph (45K)