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November 9, 2017

The Moai of Easter Island



 Image result for easter island statues
For years, people have been fascinated for years about the place in the Easter Islands where the mysterious moai stand...researchers have never been able to decipher why these figures were ever constructed…there are about 1,000 of these moai and some are up to 40 feet tall…sometimes they are incorrectly referred to as ‘The Heads On Easter Island’  and although only the heads are exposed, the rest of the constructed body is buried…what exactly was the purpose of these large figures featuring exaggerated heads being placed in certain locations?...some researchers have suggested that the statues were symbols of authority and power…used by both the religious and political alike...however they were not just symbols...it is said that to the people who erected and used them, it was believed that they were actual repositories of sacred spirits...spirits who were all powerful…it is a fact that carved stone and wooden objects in ancient Polynesian religions, when correctly created and ritually prepared, were believed to be charged by a magical spiritual essence… that is what they called mana…archaeologists further these beautiful works were a representation of the ancient Polynesian's ancestors…deified ancestors…interestingly, the moai statues face away from the ocean and towards the villages and its peoples as if to watch over those who lived there…the only exception is the seven Ahu Akivi which face out to sea to help travelers find the island, or so it is said.