Located 3700 kilometers from the coast of Chile , the Easter Island holds within itself one of the most curious mysteries of all mankind . Around year 1000 , a group of Polynesians occupied this territory and named it Rapa Nui . Without many resources available, the Polynesians used their navigational knowledge to look for their families and specimens of plants that would make life possible on this small island of 165 square kilometers .
This process of occupation alone reveals an event of great dimension linked to the complexity of the peoples who populated the island. However, the most exciting feat revolved around the manufacturing and transportation of the “moais” . The moais are huge statues, made in the vicinity of the Rano Raraku volcano , which boast four meters and about fourteen tons . Even today, it is not known what function these huge structures had for the locals.
In addition to the unknown meaning, several scientists , geologists , mathematicians eengineers wonder how, at that time, the island's population transported the 887 statues that appear scattered throughout the island. A long time ago, a first hypothesis said that Polynesians consumed most of the local trees to establish the displacement of the moai. This explanation is based on the visible lack of trees that Easter Island presents.
However, despite its logic, this hypothesis was seriously shaken when, in 1993 , a company from Japan decided to rebuild fifteen moais that had been knocked over by a tidal wave occurred in the decade of 1960 . Initially, the techniques and machines used for the execution of the project stipulated a period of onlyfour months so that everything was resolved.
During its execution, the participants of this restoration were frustrated to see that the calculations, ultramodern machines and cranes would be far from accomplishing the task in such a short space of time. In the end, all the work was completed three years later , in 1996 . Thus, the mystery of the moai still remains unscathed, just like the faces carved into those volcanic rocks.