Ahu Tongariki

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Ahu Tongariki with Poike volcano in the background. The second moai from the right has a pukao on its head.

Ahu Tongariki is the largest ahu on Rapa Nui/Easter Island (a Chilean island in the Pacific). Its moai were toppled during the island's civil wars and in the twentieth century the ahu was swept inland by a tidal wave. It has since been restored and has fifteen moai including an 86 tonne moai that was the heaviest ever erected on the island. Ahu Tongariki is close to Rano Raraku and Poike in the Rapa Nui National Park.

Ahu Tongariki was substantially restored in the 1990s by a multidisciplinary team headed by archaeologists Claudio Cristino (Director) and Patricia Vargas (Co-director executive team), in a five year project carried out under an official agreement of the Chilean Government with Tadano Lt. and the University of Chile.

Map of Rapa Nui showing major ahus with moai. Ahu Tongariki, and Rano Raraku are on the South coast just before Poike at the eastern end of the island.

Ahu Tongariki was the main centre and capital of the Hotu Iti, the eastern confederation of the Rapanui.^[1]

Ahu Tongariki in 1914. At the time, all the coastal moai were still overturned.

[edit] References

• Katherine Routledge (1919) The Mystery of Easter Island ISBN 0-932813-48-8

[edit] External links

Geography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Easter Island

• Ahu Tongariki Restoration project
• Unofficial Easter Island Homepage
• Easter Island Statue project
• How to make Walking Moai: a hypothesis about how Moai were transported
• Czech who made Moai statues walk returns to Easter Island
• History of Easter Island stones
• Easter Island - Moai Statue Scale
• University of Chile

Coordinates: 27°7′33″S 109°16′37″W / 27.12583°S 109.27694°W / -27.12583; -109.27694