Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Sights

  1. Ahu Tahai

    A perfect introduction to the island's more remote sites, the beguiling Ahu Tahai is a highly photogenic site that contains three restored ahu (ceremonial platforms). Ahu Tahai proper is the one in the middle, supporting a large, solitary moai (statue) with no topknot. On the northern side is Ahu Ko Te Riku, with a topknotted and eyeballed moai .

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  2. Ahu Tautira

    If you've just arrived and can't wait for your first encounter with the moai (statues), head straight to Ahu Tautira. This site overlooks Caleta Hanga Roa, the fishing port in Hanga Roa at the foot of Av Te Pito o Te Henua. Here you'll find a single ahu (ceremonial platform) with two superb moai.

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  3. Ahu Tongariki

    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 .

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  4. Orongo Ceremonial Village

    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.

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  5. Parque Nacional Rapa Nui

    Since 1935, most of Rapa Nui's land and all of its archaeological sites have been a national park administered by Conaf. The park teems with caves, ahu (ceremonial platforms), fallen moai (statues), village structures and petroglyphs. Spending the extra cash on a guided tour, or on an islander who can explain what you are seeing, is a very worthy investment.

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  7. Rano Raraku

    Known as 'the nursery', the Rano Raraku volcano is the quarry for the hard tuff (compacted volcanic ash) from which the moai (statues) were cut. The poignancy and eeriness is palpable as you wander among moai in all stages of progress, studded on the southern slopes of the volcano. Most are upright, but buried up to their shoulders or necks in the earth, so that only their heads gaze across the grassy slopes.

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