Public Republic

“The secret to success is to know something nobody else knows” – Aristotle Onassis

On a small island, at a 2000-km distance from the nearest island, some
amazing stone statues were hewn into the rocks of an extinct volcanic
crater. When some Dutch sailors visited the island on Easter Sunday in
1722, they were stunned by those enormous images. Those first European
visitors gave the island its current name.


Photo: steffen.dubouis

There is no documentary evidence for the traditions and culture of the
local islanders. Alfred Metro advances the theory that the islanders
came from a western Polynesian island, while Ture Heierdal thinks
local people looked like South American tribes and came from the
Amazon area.

Regardless of their origin and customs, the people of the Easter
Island have created one of the most mysterious stone giants ever and
one of the greatest mysteries in the world. There are three basic
periods of making the statues. During the earliest period, the statues
produced were kneeling human figures. The middle period is famous for
the “moai”, head- and the upper-body images. The third one coincides
with an armed struggle between the two tribes of the island: the
winners conquered the losers` land and brought their statues down.

Photo:scorbette37

Among the most interesting examples among the statues we can see the
images of a kneeling man, the Bird-man, numerous statues with eyes
made of white coral and irises of red volcanic rock. Thanks to their
impressive appearance, the statues of the Easter Island are in the
list of the most visited landmarks in the world.