By: Xavier Vega
Easter Island is considered one of the seven wonders of the world and still holds many mysteries to the rest of the world. The Island is a territory of Chile located in the Pacific Ocean. Chile is a country in western South America. This is possibly one of my most favorite mysteries because I have a strong feeling that it will never be solved. The mystery of Easter Island are the statues they are on the Island.
Easter Island is an Island that once was green and lushes but is now yellow and dry. After the people who first lived on Easter Islands used up all of the resources there and mysteriously disappeared, the island started to die that is why it is dry and yellow today. The main Mystery of Easter Island are the almost 900 Moai statues that can be found all over the island. The Moai statues were created out of volcanic rock, the largest stone is 32 feet tall and weighs 32 tons, others range from hundreds of pounds, now it may seem not so out of the ordinary that there are statues all over the island, but that is not the mystery of Easter Island, it is why the statues were created and how they were moved around the island. These were created during a time where there were no forklifts or any machinery to lift and move the statues.
Archaeology places the first inhabitants on the island between 700-800 A.D. and the first European travelers arrived on Easter Island on Sunday, April 15, 1722. Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen named the island Easter Island to commemorate the day of their arrival. There is no way that the people of Easter Island could have pushed tons of volcanic rock to where they are placed today. Some people have invested thousands or maybe even millions of dollars into trying to find out how the statues were moved by recreating mechanisms that could have been around that time. None have been successful.
Today the people that live on Easter Island work as tour guides and still to this day no one knows where the original people of Easter Island have gone.
There are two sides to this theory, some people think that they used rope and manpower to move the Moai statues in a rocking motion, others think that the statues walked on their own. We most likely will never know the true way that they were moved since we cannot find the people who originated from Easter Island.Some people who have invested money into solving the mystery of Easter Island have tested the theory of how the statues moved. They tested out the idea to use manpower and rope by moving the Moai statues in a rocking motion. After several hours they were able to move them approximately 100 meters. They note the presence of pathways or roads that lead from quarry sites to the Moai locations in the southeast, northwest and southwest parts of the island.
An alternate theory is that aliens from outer space marooned on Easter Island, used lasers or tractor beams and moved the statues, presumably to amuse themselves or perhaps to show the native inhabitants how to impress future generations, such as ourselves. Some of the people who invested money into solving the mystery of Easter Island think that aliens moved the Moai statues using alien technology from thousands of years ago. Although those thoughts and theories can not be proven, as for we have not proven aliens, yet.
We still are not sure how to move statues. The theory about aliens building and moving the Moai statues also opens up thoughts about aliens and if they are real or not. If they are real, then we know that there is a chance that these statues were moved by aliens. There is also the fact that we do not know where the people that live in Easter Island way back then went, there leaves a chance that they people that originated from Easter Island may not be alive today. That is why this is such a good mystery, it leaves questions in your head, making you want to learn more about the mystery of Easter Island. This is why I think that the mystery of Easter Island is such a good and intriguing mystery.