Rano Raraku is the ancient volcanic crater or the quarry where all of the stone statues on Easter Island were carved. It was far and away my favorite stop on Easter Island. About half the statues carved on Easter Island, some 397, are still in this area. It is the only place on Easter Island (which is not that big) where the statue rock can be found.

Thor Heyerdahl, from his time on Easter Island, said, “Rano Raraku remains one of the greatest and most curious monuments of mankind, a monument to the great lost unknown behind us…”

The hills or rock hillsides in these pictures are the outside of an ancient volcano. Most of the statues on the island were carved right out of the rock in the hillside that you see in the first and third photos. The second photo is the area just to the right of the first photo. The statues in the pictures were finished statues thought to be on their way to some placement site on the island when the society erupted in war and the statute building business came to a screeching halt. Some statues were left standing, some lying down, some half buried by time, but all of these were fully carved statues when abandoned.