Scientists Finally Crack Mystery Of Easter Island Statues, Revealing How They Were Moved Centuries Ago

The world is full of ancient mysteries, but scientists believe they’ve finally solved one that has fascinated historians and archaeologists for centuries — the mystery of Easter Island’s famous stone figures.

Spend even a few minutes on YouTube, and you’ll find endless videos exploring humanity’s greatest unsolved questions — from how the pyramids were built to what really went on at Stonehenge.

But one mystery that doesn’t get quite as much screen time is how the enormous statues of Easter Island, located off the coast of Chile, were moved into place so many hundreds of years ago.

For those unfamiliar, the island is home to massive stone statues known as Moai, which each weigh between 12 and 14 tons. At first glance, they look like giant heads buried in the ground, but that’s only part of the story — most of the figures actually have full bodies hidden beneath the surface.

For decades, researchers have been mystified by how the Rapa Nui people managed to transport these colossal structures across the island without modern tools or technology.

Now, new findings suggest that ancient islanders may have relied on clever engineering rather than brute force to make it happen.

Experts already knew that the Rapa Nui civilization, who lived in eastern Polynesia, carved and erected the statues sometime between 1250 and 1500 CE.

What remained unclear, however, was how they managed to move such massive pieces of stone through rugged terrain with limited resources.

The walking of the statues looks pretty impressive and makes sense, according to the researchers National Geographic

That mystery may finally be solved. Modern researchers have not only proposed a theory but also recreated the method to show how it might have worked in practice.

Carl Lipo, a Professor of Anthropology at Binghamton University, and Terry Hunt from the University of Arizona have spent years studying the statues and the island’s roads.

Their research suggests that the Rapa Nui people used ropes to “walk” the Moai upright, rocking them from side to side along carefully prepared paths.

Lipo explained: "Once you get it moving, it isn't hard at all – people are pulling with one arm. It conserves energy, and it moves really quickly."

"The hard part is getting it rocking in the first place. The question is, if it's really large, what would it take? Are the things that we saw experimentally consistent with what we would expect from a physics perspective?"

When demonstrated, the process is surprisingly graceful — the statue appears to wobble slightly, shifting from left to right as it slowly moves forward.

Watching the motion, it’s easy to imagine how ancient builders might have guided these towering figures across the island centuries ago.

To test their theory, the research team built a 4.35-ton replica of a Moai. With the help of just 18 people, they were able to “walk” the statue 100 meters in only 40 minutes, proving that the technique was not only possible but efficient.

Lipo went on to say: "The physics makes sense. What we saw experimentally actually works. And as it gets bigger, it still works. All the attributes that we see about moving gigantic ones only get more and more consistent the bigger and bigger they get, because it becomes the only way you could move it."

He also pointed out that the network of ancient roads on the island supports their findings, showing how the statues could have been moved in stages rather than dragged in one go.

"We actually see them overlapping each other, and many parallel versions of them. What they are probably doing is clearing a path, moving it, clearing another, clearing it further, and moving it right in certain sequences. So they're spending a lot of time on the road part."

The researchers are so confident in their results that Lipo has even invited others to challenge their theory — if they can.

"Find some evidence that shows it couldn't be walking," he said. "Because nothing we've seen anywhere disproves that."