Visiting Easter Island (Land-Based)

Topknot Quarry at Puna Pau

As I was walking up the trail to the topknot quarry, I turned around to take a picture of Maunga Tangaroa in the near distance. You can see several large topknots at the base of the trail. You can also just make out my car parked on the loop in the roadway.

The first place I stopped was Puna Pau, located down a short side road that ended at a complex of smallish volcano cones (small compared to the three big volcanoes). At one cone, there was a large pit dug into the rock, which was the quarry where the moai topknots were hewn from solid rock.

The topknots are made from red scoria, a different kind of rock than the moai, so they were quarried and carved at a different location than the moai. Scattered around the landscape were several topknots, some of them broken.

While standing on the rim of the quarry I had a good view of Hanga Roa, a couple of miles to the west. I was also buffeted by strong winds which I estimated to be 30 to 35 knots (I hope Nine of Cups is doing OK). It was becoming more and more cloudy and was turning into a gray day, not a great day for picture taking. The pictures wind up with very high contrast, basically very bright and very dark with few midtones.

Standing on the rim of the quarry, looking in at a few topknots scattered about, with Maunga Tangaroa in the background.		Looking into the quarry from a different viewpoint.

A closer view of the topknots at the base of the trail.

Though partially sunken into the soil, this big topknot is still taller than I am.