Moai is a monolithic human figures carved from rock between 1250 and 1500 years and being on Chile's Easter island (Rapa Nui). Almost half of them are still on the outer slopes of the crater rano Raraku volcano of Terevaka. Some half buried, some left still "under construction", and hundreds were taken from there and set on stone platforms called AHU, around the perimeter of the island. Almost all moai have too large a head constituting a three-eighths the size of the whole statue. The moai are chiefly the living faces of deified ancestors.

High moai is called "paro" - height of almost 10 meters and weigh more than 80 tons. One unfinished sculpture, if completed, would have been approximately a height of 21 m with a weight of about 270 tons. The average height of the moai is about 4 m, diameter - 1, 6 m. These massive creations, usually weigh 12, 5 tons.

All 53 887 moai known to date were carved from tuff (compressed volcanic ash) Early-Raraku. There are also 13 moai carved from basalt, 22 from trachyte and 17 from fragile red scoria.

The statues of Easter island are known for their large, broad noses and massive chin, rectangular shape of the ears and deep eye slits. Their bodies, as a rule, sitting on his haunches, with arms, without legs.

In 1979, Sergio RAPU Haoa and a team of archaeologists found that the hemispherical or deep elliptical eye sockets were designed to hold coral eyes with either black or red pupils from slag. But over time, the colored pupils of the statues were lost.

Some moai were heaped-Puka on their heads, they were carved from red volcanic slag (very easy slag from the quarry at puna-PAHs). Red is considered a sacred color in Polynesia. Adding caps-Puka increased the status of the moai.

Many archaeologists suggest that the moai statues are symbols of authority and power, both religious and political. Archaeologists believe that the statues were the epitome of ancient Polynesian ancestors. The moai statues, which was turned away from the ocean and turned to the villages, as if watching the people. With the exception of seven AHU-Akiva who look at the sea to help travelers find the island. There is a legend which says that there were seven people who were waiting for their king, that he arrived safely on the island Rapa Nui.