Was Largest Easter Island Moai Statue Never Erected?
, 2022-10-19 07:17:09,
A viral Reddit post has claimed that one of the Easter Island Moai statues was carved, but was never erected, and would have been 72 feet tall.
The Moai statues consist of large heads and smaller bodies, which are often buried beneath the ground from the neck down.
The statues were built in approximately 1400 – 1650 A.D. by the natives of this island, known as Rapa Nui, according to the official Easter Island travel guide, allegedly in honor of the chieftain or other important people who had passed away.
The tallest standing statue on Easter Island currently is only 33 feet tall.
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The Claim
The Reddit post shows a picture of one of the Moai statues still laying in the ground.
“One of the Easter Island Moai statues that was carved but never erected. it would have stood 72ft tall (the tallest standing is 33ft high) and weighed more than 2 Boeing 737’s. This also shows how the figures were carved,” wrote user u/Status-Victory in the title of the post, which has more than 87,000 upvotes.
The Facts
It is estimated that there are around 1,000 statues, each weighing up to 86 tons and reaching up to 33 feet, though on average the statues are around half of that. Ninety-five percent of the Moais were carved from the volcano Rano Raraku, the island guide states.
The largest Moai statue was indeed…
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