Anakena
Ahu te Pito Kura and Anakena
I was on an all-day tour of six sites along first the southern
and then the northern shore of Rapa Nui.
The sequence of stopping points was constrained by
practical matters,
but for me it was precisely the correct order.
We had started at two sites that provided the
background for what we would be seeing.
Then the two major sites of
Rano Raraku and Ahu Toŋariki —
probably the only two sites
that many people end up seeing —
the mo'ai quarry and workshop,
and the largest ahu, respectively.
There had been a lot to take in so far.
The last two stops were
a relatively minor site at Ahu Te Pito Kura
and the beach at Anakena,
said to be where the original settlers landed.
Anakena has two ahu,
one with seven mo'ai
and the other holding the first re-erected mo'ai.
But the Anakena stop was largely a pleasant place to relax.
Ahu Te Pito Kura
The island of Rapa Nui and a few islets just off its coast are the summit of a volcanic mountain rising over 2,000 meters from the sea floor. The primary shape of the island is formed by the coalesced peaks of three extinct volcanos. The island is on the Nazca Plate, having moved about 150 mm per year to the east over a volcanic hotspot that provided the lava that built the mountain.
Poike, the shallow volcanic cone in the distance beyond the nearby ahu without mo'ai, is at the eastern tip of the island. That means that it is the oldest of the three main volcanic peaks.
Down by the waterline, there's a cylindrical stone wall similar to the manavai structures the Rapa Nui used to protect their gardens from the strong winds. Inside it, there's a smooth stone said to be "The Navel of the World", brought to the island by its first king. Maybe it emits mana, spiritual power. Or maybe it's strongly magnetic. Or, most likely, it's just a large smooth oval rock with four smaller smooth rocks around it.
Anakena
We continued on to our last stop, the beach at Anakena. This is the only coral sand beach on the island, and one of the few landing places sheltered from strong waves and wind. Anakena is said to be where the first settlers arrived, probably some time between 300 and 800 CE.
The legend is that Hotu Matu'a led the settlers and was the ariki mau or supreme chief of the island. They came from a homeland called Hiva or Hawaiki, the original home of the Polynesian people before they spread out across the widely scattered islands. Linguistic analysis suggests that the settlers came from the Marquesas Islands, 3,800 km to the northwest.
Ahu are stone platforms
that evolved from the traditional Polynesian marae,
communal or sacred spaces.
Mo'ai or moai
are megalithic statues depicting deified ancestors.
Many have been placed on ahu, facing inland to watch over the living.
Pukao are hat-like cylindrical structures
carved from light-red volcanic scoria and placed on top of some mo'ai.
They're believed to represent the long hair of high-ranking men
tied in buns on top of their heads.
ŋ or eng
as seen in Haŋa Roa, the name of the town,
is pronounced as in the English word
singing
and not as in
unglued.
The legend says that a priest named Haumaka appeared to Hotu Matu'a one night in a dream. The priest flew out over the ocean and discovered an island which he called Te Pito 'o te Kāina, meaning The Center of the Earth".
Hotu Matu'a understood his dream to be prophecy. He sent seven scouts out across the ocean in canoes. They discovered the island that Hotu Matu'a had learned of through his dream, and returned to tell the king that it was there and they knew how to navigate to it.
Hotu Matu'a organized his family and a large crew, gathered supplies, and they set out in either one huge double-hulled canoe or two large single-hulled canoes piloted by the captain Tu'u ko Iho. They landed here at this beach. The entire settlement group lived here briefly before dividing the island between clans descended from sons of Hotu Matu'a.
The Polynesian people could do phenomenal navigation over thousands of kilometers of open ocean. That part definitely happened. As for the rest, it's legend with inconsistencies.
There are versions that say that the king Hotu Matu'a was a myth, and Tu'u ko Iho, the captain, was really the leader on the voyage and on the island.
VisitingDelphi
Europeans re-translated Te Pito 'o te Kāina to be "The Navel of the Earth" because that aligned with a mystical stone at Delphi, in Greece.
What you usually hear about "The Navel of the World" is that it was the island's name as given in the king's dream, and what they called the island when they settled here. The legend at the previous stop at Ahu Te Pito Kura was that the five large smooth rocks had been brought across the ocean in the canoes. And then, for some reason, carried almost four kilometers to a far less suitable landing cove.
There are two ahu at the beach. Ahu Ature Huki holds one mo'ai partway up a small cinder cone. This mo'ai is the one which a dozen Rapa Nui helped Thor Heyerdahl to re-erect in 1956.
Ahu Nau Nau is above the beach with seven mo'ai looking inland, deified ancestors watching over the settlement of their descendants. Four have pukao topknots. Two mo'ai are heavily damaged with just the torso of one and half the torso of the other.
It was a very full day! We had left at 09:00, and arrived back in town at 18:30. I got dinner at the Ohi restaurant, salmon ceviche with salad and fried sweet potato slices.
Next❯ Rana Kao — The Volcano Above Haŋa Rao