See the Statues of Easter Island up close

“When the sky eventually begins to lighten — a light purple, then pink silhouetting the massive stone figures in front of us — it feels oddly appropriate to be lashed by the rain while standing in this intense, ancient space. As the sun slowly reveals itself, the rain subsides and it’s suddenly warm again, everything wet and slightly glowing. We are silent. Looking up at the statues’ expressionless stone faces, it is the furthest I’ve ever felt from home, and the most alive I’ve felt in years.”

“Despite having seen the moai in photos my entire life, nothing quite prepares me for seeing them in person. The stone monuments are massive and much more ornate than I imagined. They have arms and ears but generally no legs. At one time, they also had eyes made from coral and obsidian. The trunks of their bodies are typically buried deep in the ground, which means they are even bigger than they appear.”

“We'd only seen a few close up, but already I was being disabused of some of the assumptions I had made on the basis of the photographic record. For one, I'd been under the impression that the moai were so highly stylised as to be devoid of expression or personality. This was certainly not the case. Every moai we encountered on Easter Island had its own unique "personality". Both Marc and I found it best to encounter them as individuals and, while three main "styles" have been identified by archaeologists, the most resonant thing was that when standing in among them it was as if one was at a cocktail party, trapped in a conversational group of three-metre-high ancients, their complexions coarsened by salt-sea winds and their chins sporting goatees of lichen.”