“The island is planted with monstrous great statues, the work of I don’t know what race, today degenerate or vanished; its great remains an enigma.” Named Easter Island by the Dutch explorer ...

Jon Canfield Easter Island Moai. Courtesy of Flickr user Ndecam. Easter Island Ahu Tongariki. Courtesy of Flickr user Ndecam. Easter Island, Rano Kau. Courtesy of Flickr user Arian Zwegers.

There is no place in the world like Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui. It feels like it is not even of this world. Located more than 2,000 miles from South America's mainland, it is one of the ...

This story appears in the July 2012 issue of National Geographic magazine. On a winter night last June, José Antonio Tuki, a 30-year-old artist on Easter Island, did one of the things he loves ...

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles from any continent, Easter Island rises out of the sea. Its surface tells a story of volcanism that began roughly 2.5 million years ago ...

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 ...