The most representative ahu in Easter Island is the Nau Nau ahu, located in the spectacular beach of Anakena. It is one of the few ahu that is almost completely restored (the right part hasn’t been restored yet); although the archeological work carried out was not very extensive. Symbolically, this ahu is one of the most important, since King Hotu Matua and his people disembarked on this beach between the years 400 and 600 of our era. They came from the land of Marae Renga, in the island of Hiva. The legend specifies that seven explorers were sent before the migration.
Font:
http://www.easterislandtourism.com/what-to-visit/easter-island-statues/
Is the place where the great buns that covered the moai were extracted and prepared (most of them did not carry them). The ancient islanders opened this quarry belatedly in one of the many adventitious cones of the island. The red rock used to make the pukao is very soft, since it is formed by volcanic slag. The real difficulty the sculptors faced was extracting these hats from the craters, and particularly, rolling them over carefully in order to transport them without damaging them. Many believe that due to the lack of instruments like cranes, whoever lifted the moai first placed the pukao on their heads, and then lifted the whole set with a system which consisted of piling up stones and using levers. Heyerdahl carried out the experiment in Anakena in 1956. The weight of the pukao ranged from 9 to 12 tons.
Font:http://www.easterislandtourism.com/what-to-visit/archaeology/
