Ahu Tongariki

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Lonely Planet review

Dazzling in scale and setting, you'll be awestruck the minute this monumental ahu (ceremonial platform) comes into view. Between 1992 and 1995, the Japanese company Tadano re-erected 15 moai (statues) at this site - a 1960 tsunami, produced by an earthquake between Rapa Nui and the South American mainland, had flattened the statues and scattered several topknots far inland. Only one topknot has been returned to its place atop a moai .

Several petroglyphs, near the bend of the road some distance from the moai , show figures of a turtle with a human face, a tuna fish, a birdman motif and Rongo-Rongo figures.