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The enigmatic giant stone sentinels of Easter Island are the only ones who know the reason why the original inhabitants of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) were obsessed with carving the massive Moai (images of man) and destroying the ecological balance of the island in the process

About 700 of these silent sentries can be found on the tiny island - each hewn from the stone of Rano Raraku, an extinct volcano. The Moai pictured here stand half buried at the foot of the volcano unable to 'walk' to their final perch, an altar (or 'ahu') somewhere on the coast