Ahu Tonga Riki sunrise

We had been told that the sunrise at Ahu Tonga Riki was fantastic, so we woke up at 6:30 am and drove to the Eastern edge of the island some 25 kms away. We arrived at 7:30 am just before sunrise. There were quite a few other people there but it was cloudy. We walked around the marked area and saw some petroglyphs and a lying down moai.

Ahu Tongariki is the largest ahu on Easter Island. Its moai were toppled during the island's civil wars and in the twentieth century the ahu was swept inland by a tsunami. It has since been restored and has fifteen moai, including an 86 tonne moai that was the heaviest ever erected on the island. All the moai here face sunset during Summer Solstice.Read more