!!!Moai Statues

by Stanislav Sedov and
 Dmitry Moiseenko,
members of the [AirPano Team|Geography/About/Consortium/AirPano,_Team] that is a member of the [global-geography Consortium|Geography/About/Consortium]. \\

11 May 2012

with kind permission of [AirPano|http://www.AirPano.com]

I was amazed by Easter Island the minute I walked across the field of
the local airport. Rich, vibrant colors made me feel like a Disney
cartoon character. Later that evening I went sightseeing with my friend
Dima and wound up on the shore of the Pacific Ocean. It was the second
time I lost my breath: the local color palette was beyond my
imagination.

[{Image src='01_Moais of Easter Island.jpg' caption='Moais of Easter Island' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='342'}]

[{Image src='02_Moais of Easter Island at sunset time.jpg' caption='Moais of Easter Island at sunset time' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='694'}]

Of course we couldn't help but try to shoot something the same evening.
But vigilant rangers saw our equipment and asked to get the official
photo permit first. Locals are very concerned about the safety of Moai,
the famous giant statues of Easter Island. You can easily get in jail if
you harm the statues in any way.

The next morning we went to the National Park's administration office.
The director was absent so his colleagues suggested we fill out the
photo permit application, which was 5 pages long and in Spanish :) We
didn't know Spanish very well. Only "hi", "good bye", and "check,
please". Mister Hutu, the director, arrived about 30 minutes later
riding his little motorcycle. Having learned about our situation, Mr.
Hutu explained us how one can get the permit: you need to fill out this
very form in Spanish, scan it, mail it and wait for 10 to 15 days. And
we had only 1 day... So Dima had to use his power of persuasion to the
maximum. He told Mr. Hutu about our non-profit project and showed
examples of panoramic photos on his laptop.

To cut a long story short, we got our official photo permit in 10
minutes. Mr. Hutu didn't hesitate to take responsibility and issued us
the permit, and in that regard he surprised us very much (we hadn't met
such an easy going official before). He didn't even take our money. But
there were conditions: we had to be accompanied by a local ranger, the
young man named Kawa. Furthermore, Mr. Hutu asked us to send him a copy
of our photographs. He said they would be used as educational materials
in local schools.

[{Image src='03_Moais of Easter Island at night.jpg' caption='Moais of Easter Island at night' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='600'}]

As soon as we were finished, we rushed to take pictures. At first, Kawa
was very suspicious of our radio-controlled helicopter, but after few
launches he got excited just like we were and helped us in any way he
could. From that moment on, we didn't have to look at the map — we just
followed Kawa's directions. Every time local rangers (usually very
strict looking) noticed Kawa, they gave us big smiles and showed best
spots for shooting.

To our big surprise, there weren't that many standing statues on the
famous Easter Island. Instead, most of them were lying in different
poses. Most of the time they were "with their face in the salad", as one
famous blogger said. Some Moai were restored and cemented on ceremonial
grounds of Tongariki, Anakena, Tahai, Ahu Akivi. And only on the slopes
of Rano Raraku volcano the statues the give you the most authentic
impression. Giant figures are in different stages of completeness: they
are shoulder deep in the ground or even merged with the walls of the
dead volcano.

[{Image src='04_Moais of Easter Island.jpg' caption='Moais of Easter Island' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='626'}]

[{Image src='05_Ancient statues.jpg' caption='Ancient statues' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='646'}]

Most of the tourists don't see these sights because only standard paths
are open for public in the park. We had to go beyond our piloting skills
to photograph places that are not available to ordinary tourists. Only
the view from above can show us the scale of this "factory of idols"
made of volcanic rock of these very crater's walls. So one could say
that we were able to lift the veil of mystery covering Easter Island.

But first we had to endure a very bad weather. The first two days of the
shooting were rainy and gloomy. The next morning, right before our
departure, we had to work hard to retake photos of main locations of the
ancient statues. Of course, two days were not enough to carefully
explore this little piece of land forsaken in the middle of the Pacific
ocean. But our three-week trip to Peru and Chili was coming to an end
and we had to pack our bags and leave the island.

[{Image src='06_Easter Island.jpg' caption='Easter Island' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='600'}]

Here is Dima Moiseenko's comment:

The legendary Moai statues were not the only thing that fascinated me on
Easter Island. There is a little local restaurant on the bay that serves
fresh fish, which name I couldn't possibly pronounce. I would return to
the island any time just to taste that fish again.

And now we'll share some information about the island:

The AirPano team has photographed a great number of amazing places on
the planet for the last several years. However nothing can compare with
Easter Island, the most remote inhabitant piece of land in the world.
This small island (164 sq km) holds the greatest number of unsolved
mysteries.

Pick any fact from the long list and it would send your mind spinning
with different mystery theories. However if you see those mysteries as a
unified system, as links of one chain, suddenly, the veil of the great
mystery is lifted. There is much more to this island than meets the eye.
There are phenomena, which are absolutely untypical not only to this
region but also to the natives.

[{Image src='07_Moais of Easter Island at evening.jpg' caption='Moais of Easter Island at evening' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='487'}]

Beside its name, which was given to Easter Island by Jacob Roggeveen,
the God-loving Dutch explorer, the island has at least eight other
names. Among them are Te Pito O Te Henua, which means "the Navel of the
World", and Mata Ki Te Rangi, which can be translated as "Eyes looking
to the sky". Rapa Nui, Easter Island's native population of 4 thousand
people, has the richest and absolutely unique mythology. Furthermore,
this is the only island in the entire Polynesian region that developed a
written language. And of course, we have to mention the main tourist
attraction of Easter Island — famous moai statues. These monoliths are
made of solidified volcanic ash. They are up to 20 meters tall, and each
of them weights over 20 tons. There are total of 997 moai statues on
Easter Island.

The only question scientists were able to answer so far (thanks to the
experiment of Thor Heyerdahl, famous Norwegian traveler) is how the
statues were moved from stone quarries and set around the island with
limited technologies available at that time. The explanation turned out
to be quite simple: Rapa Nui people showed moving devices that they made
of wood and rocks.

But it didn't explain the purpose of moai statues and whom they
portrayed. The elongated heads don't look exactly human. Erich von
Daniken, a Swiss novelist, had his own theory. He suggested that long
time ago an alien space ship broke down and ET were forced to land on
the island. While repairing the space ship, they had fun casting each
other in stone. This is why moai statues have such non-human elongated
faces. This also explains one of the island's names — "Eyes looking to
the sky" As soon as the space ship was fixed, extra terrestrial visitors
departed leaving the statues behind, many of them unfinished.

[{Image src='08_Moais of Easter Island.jpg' caption='Moais of Easter Island' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='361'}]

Helena Blavatsky, a philosopher and occultist, believed that Easter
Island was a part of mythical country Lemuria. Along with Lemurians,
survivors of lost Atlantis, also populated this country. Both races were
7 to 18 meters tall. This is why it was not so hard for the giants to
make and install these monoliths.

There is one more mysterious (and still unsolved) question: why did one
of the emperors of the ancient Inca visit such a remote island? And he
was not just a common emperor, he was the one who ruled during Golden
Age of the Inca Empire, and whose father built Machu Picchu, the famous
Peru landmark.

Throw in a unique — still undeciphered by scientists — ancient written
language, along with a cult of a mystical Bird Man, and all pieces of
the puzzle will fall together.

[{Image src='09_Volcano crater.jpg' caption='Volcano crater' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='514'}]

Yes, there was a non-human civilization on this island. It could be
aliens, people of Atlantis, or ancestors of the ancient Inca (whose
mysteries are also unsolved by modern science). Yes, that civilization
vanished (or returned to their home planet). And yes, along with a
number of mysteries, it also left us a proof of its existence: the
written language, the mythology and the giant monuments, which common
aboriginals of this "middle-of-nowhere" island would not care for. There
are thousands of similar islands in the world, but none of them has such
a unique and mysterious culture as Easter Island.

Who knows, perhaps by looking at our photographs from Easter Island or
traveling with our aerial panoramas you will be able to find the
answers?

Compare the size of statues and the height of man

[{Image src='10_Compare the size of statues and the height of man.jpg' caption='Compare the size of statues and the height of man' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='574'}]

[{Image src='11_humor.jpg' caption='humor' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='577'}]

\\ \\
[13 Panoramas of Moai Statues|Geography/America/Chile/Pictures/Panoramas_of_Moai_Statues]










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