Остров Пасхи english

It was the richest seabird breeding site in Polynesia and probably in the whole Pacific.The reasons are today eminently clear.During the mid 1700s rival clans began to topple each other's stone statues.By 1864 the last of the statues was thrown down and desecrated.Nearly all the moai are carved from the tough stone of the Rano Raraku volcano.A small number of the moai were once capped with crowns or hats of red volcanic stone.Scholars are unable to definitively explain the function and use of the moai statues.The statues were thus symbols of authority and power, both religious and political.But they were not only symbols.To the people who erected and used them, they were actual repositories of sacred spirit.