Rano Raraku

The quarry

A quarry used for about 500 years supplied most of the moai

Rano Raraku is a volcanic crater formed of consolidated volcanic ash, or tuff. It was a quarry for about 500 years until the early eighteenth century and supplied the stone for about 95% of the island's known moai.

887moai remain at Rano Raraku

Unfinished

The largest unfinished moai is almost twice the size of any finished one

The largest incomplete statue measures 21.6 m in height, almost twice that of any moai ever completed, and weighs an estimated 270 tonnes. Some were abandoned after the carvers met very hard rock.

21.6 mheight of the largest unfinished moai

Outside

The moai on the outer slope were never cast down in the civil wars

Moai outside the quarry are partly buried to their shoulders in spoil. Their eyes were not hollowed out, they have no pukao, and they were not cast down in the island's civil wars. For this reason they supplied some of the most famous images of the island.

Tukuturi

Tukuturi kneels, which marks it out from the standard moai

Tukuturi is an unusual moai. Its beard and kneeling posture distinguish it from standard moai. The posture was used by the chorus in the festivals called riu, and the statue may be one of the last moai ever made.