Tongariki

Located on the Hanga Hotulti Bay, the 650-foot-long Ahu Tongariki conveys a sense of a lost empire, reminiscent of Petra, the Acropolis or Mayan ruins. The iconic line of 15 statues, which soar as high as 22 feet, is best seen first thing in the morning or at sunset, where the light is great and crowds are smaller. (Rapanui won’t ever come after sunset because of superstitions, but seeing the statues by moonlight is a positively other-worldly experience). Each of the heads have different faces and styles, evidence that they had been created by different groups and might have been representations of the men they were depicting. “By having faces, they give life to the rocks,” my guide explained.

Fully destroyed in the 1960s by tsunami waves moving at 500 miles per hour, the ahu saw its 15 moai scattered around the island. It wasn’t until the 1990s when a Japanese group came in to restore the statues and return them to their original locations. The team of scientists and historians used extremely high-tech machinery that had been custom-made for the process. One of the moai wears his original topknot, or hat, made out of a different stone of a reddish color. (Replacing the other 14 topknots proved too difficult even for modern technology, so they sit on the grass beside the statues.)