(Podcast: National Geographic's Hannah Bloch on Easter Island statue theories.) Meanwhile, for many of Easter Island's 2,000 or so indigenous Rapanui, descended from the original Polynesian ...

One of the most remote inhabited locations on Earth, Easter Island is famous for the thousand or so enigmatic, towering statues that dot its landscape, called moai. Earlier this month, a fire ...

surfing, and enticing beaches when a bit of relaxation is in order. Giant moai statues dot the grassy flanks of an extinct volcano on Easter Island.

The meanings of many of these significant geographic talisman have been teased out by archaeologists, but some are resistant to revealing their secrets. Here are just a few. Easter Island—Rapa ...

National Geographic reported in 2022 that there were 1,043 complete statues on Easter Island. The moai are carved out of volcanic stone. Most face inland, except for seven that face the ocean.

This is the largest group of religious, megalithic sculptures in South America, akin to an Andean Easter Island. Yet, until recently, thanks to the nation’s long history of armed conflict ...

Here are some, including a symbol-stamped clay disk, the Easter Island tablets, and a 16th-century world map depicting landmasses allegedly unknown at the time it was charted, that still grip onto ...