Jim McMahon/Mapman®
From far away, they look like giant guards. But they’re actually famous statues. More than 900 of them are on an island in the Pacific Ocean. It’s known as Easter Island. People who live there call it Rapa Nui (RAH-puh NOO-ee).
The towering stone statues were created between 400 and 900 years ago. They are called moai (MOH-eye). The islanders made the statues to honor some of their greatest leaders.
Workers carved the statues out of the walls of a volcano. Then they moved them across the rocky island. Some were transported as far as 11 miles.
But back then, the islanders didn’t have wheels. So they couldn’t have moved the statues on carts. The types of machines we use today didn’t exist at that time either. So how did workers move the statues? Some are more than 13 feet tall and weigh 28,000 pounds. That’s about as heavy as seven cars!
One idea is that workers laid the moai on wooden sleds. Then they rolled the statues over logs. But a new study supports a different idea. Some experts think the statues may have “walked.”