However, standing face to face with the moai statues is an indescribable experience. Easter Island, located in the Pacific Ocean, is a place with several names and a captivating history.

That is, for the moai. Tourists diving on Easter Island’s reef encounter a fake moai, made for a 1994 Hollywood movie and then sunk offshore. The reef is healthy, though it is overfished.

On average, they stand 13 feet high and weigh 14 tons, human heads-on-torsos carved in the male form from rough hardened volcanic ash. The islanders call them "moai," and they have puzzled ...

In a remote patch of the Pacific Ocean lies Rapa Nui, otherwise known as Easter Island. It’s a tiny, windswept place, famed for its colossal Moai – mysterious stone figures that each weigh ...

"On a crisp September morning, I rushed out to Ahu Tongariki near Rano Raraku in order to see the sun rise over the 15 moai." Jon Canfield Easter Island Moai. Courtesy of Flickr user Ndecam.

Paul Trachtman Local artists are reviving the island's traditions. Tattooist Andreas "Panda" Pakarati displays a wooden moai he's just ... an enigma.” Named Easter Island by the Dutch explorer ...