
The Easter Island Nobody Sees: Hidden Moai, Megaliths & Ancient Roads
What lies beyond the tourist trail on Easter Island? In this episode of Secrets in Stone, I hike more than 11 miles across the remote northwest coast of Rapa Nui to explore moai, megalithic walls, ancient ahu, lava caves, petroglyphs and archaeological sites that most visitors never see.We begin at Ana Te Pahu, one of Rapa Nui’s extraordinary lava-tube cave systems, before entering the remote archaeological landscape around Ahu Te Peu. From there, we follow the wild coastline north through a landscape filled with unrestored monuments—including the island’s largest surviving boat-house foundations, enormous dressed stones, reused moai and some of the finest megalithic masonry I encountered anywhere on Easter Island.Along the way, we visit Ahu Maitaki te Moa, where an entire moai was incorporated into a later ahu wall, and Ahu Vai Mata, home to an enormous fallen moai and extraordinary stonework that immediately reminded me of the famous wall at Ahu Vinapu and the megalithic construction of ancient Peru.We’ll also return to Katherine Routledge’s mysterious account of Ara Mahiva, an ancient coastal road said to have encircled the island, and ask whether some of the monumental remains along this remote coastline could preserve a much older chapter of Rapa Nui’s history.And throughout the episode, you’ll hear ancient Rapa Nui stories directly from our guides Alejandro Pakarati and Elena Delgado of Easter Island Expeditions.This is Easter Island away from the restored monuments, buses and crowds—a landscape where archaeology still lies scattered across the ground exactly where generations of people left it.Watch Part 1: Easter Island: Older Than We Think? Subscribe to Secrets in Stone for investigations into ancient sites, megalithic architecture, lost history and archaeology around the world.