On which island are the monumental moai statues found?

The monumental moai statues are found on Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island.

Rapa Nui is a remote Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean and forms part of Chile. Its Indigenous Rapa Nui people carved the statues mainly between about 1250 and 1500. Most moai were carved from volcanic tuff at the quarry of Rano Raraku and transported to ceremonial platforms called ahu around the island.

The statues represent deified ancestors or important chiefly figures. Their oversized heads are a feature of their proportions, not evidence that they were designed only as heads. Many originally had cylindrical red-stone topknots called pukao, and some stood with coral eyes.

The island’s name Easter Island was given by Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen after arriving on Easter Sunday in 1722. Rapa Nui is the Indigenous name and is preferred in many cultural contexts. The statues are not located in Bora Bora or other Polynesian islands.