World 🢖 Australia and Oceania 🢖 Polynesia 🢖 Chile 🢖 Rapa Nui

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Wonder

Rano Raraku quarry

Slopes of Rano Raraku with abandoned moai, Rapa Nui
Slopes of Rano Raraku with abandoned moai / Vera & Jean-Christophe, Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0.

WorldBlue  In short

One of the visually most impressive megalithic monuments of the world.

Rano Raraku served as a mine of moai, used sometimes around 1200 – 1700 AD. Here in the comparatively soft volcanic tufa were hewn moai sculptures for further transport to different parts of the island.

Numerous (397) sculptures are located in situ up to this day, half-made or left on the way to their destinations. Very impressive are the semi-completed moai still standing in the vertical cliff face. Not less imposing are the moai dotting the slope and partly subsided in the ground.

Rano Raraku serves as a great place to research the evolution of moai. Here is located the largest moai weighing 270 tons and 21.6 m tall, many times larger than any transported moai. Here nearby is located also Tukuturi – an unusual sitting sculpture made of red stone from Puna Pau quarry.

5.5 out of 10 stars 55.3%

GPS coordinates
27.1264 S 109.2885 W
Location, address
Australia and Oceania, Polynesia, Chile, Rapa Nui, southern rim of Rano Raraku crater in the eastern part of the island

Map of the site

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