Orongo Ceremonial Village

Lonely Planet review

Perched high on the edge of the Rano Kau crater wall and abutting a vertical drop plunging down to the cobalt-blue ocean, Orongo ceremonial village boasts one of the world's most dramatic landscapes. This fragile outcrop is where bird-cult rituals were performed in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In the apex of cult ceremonies, competitors raced to retrieve an egg of the sooty tern from the small motu (islets) just offshore. The young men descended the cliffs and swam out to the islands (with the aid of rafts) to search for an egg. The first to find an egg became birdman for the year. Visitors will find a cluster of boulders covered in petroglyphs depicting Tangata Manu (the birdman) and Make Make (their god).