Almost everyone who is even slightly interested in the history of mankind and its mysteries knows about Easter Island. Of course, when mentioning the island, you immediately think of its mysterious stone statues, but this is only one of the mysteries of the mystical piece of land lost in the vast ocean.
In recent years, more and more articles and reports of scientists, travelers, and explorers find references to the mysterious and dangerous dungeons of the famous island.
Roads “sunk” in the ocean
When you see the famous statues of Easter Island, called moai, by the locals, you immediately realize that this little piece of land in the middle of the ocean is one of the most mysterious places on earth. Hundreds of huge stone icons weighing from 12 to 80 tons are scattered around the island, it seems that in the distant past, there was some kind of disaster that stopped the well-established “production” of the majestic idols of volcanic tuff.
Easter Island, with a length of only 22 kilometers and a width of 11 kilometers has never had a significant population, there were simply no resources to feed tens of thousands of people. This fact allows many researchers to put forward the most fantastic hypotheses regarding the origin of the giant statues. Some say that the small population of the island just could not create so many statues, so they connect the origin of moai with aliens, others put forward an even more “cool” version that the statues literally spit out of the bowels of the earth some mystical forces.
Alas, a long time ago died, Thor Heyerdahl, who could give a worthy rebuff to these versions because, in his time, he revealed all the rather unsophisticated secrets of making stone statues. The islanders were weaving statues out of volcanic tuff in a quarry on the slope of the volcano Rano Raraku, where not only thousands of stone axes and picks were found, but also unfinished statues, which until the very last moment were connected with the rock with their backs.
Thor Heyerdahl hired some islanders as an experiment, who outlined the contours of the statue and began to pull it with stone axes, occasionally pouring water on the rock to soften it. Three days later a clear silhouette emerged from the rock, and the scholar was able to estimate the time it would take to make the stone colossus. According to his calculations, “any statue on Easter Island could have been carved in less than a year by two groups of ten stonemasons”.
However, there are a lot of secrets on the island. Who were these statues depicting? Why did they suddenly stop creating them? How did the settlement of this island happen? Where are the origins of the mysterious writing — hieroglyphs on wooden rongorongo tablets? Where do the ancient roads leading directly into the ocean lead?
Caves and tunnels in the bowels of the island
During the history of Easter Island, dozens of scientific expeditions have visited it, and its small surface area has been studied quite well. It is not surprising that now the dungeons of the island are of great interest to scientists. It has been known about caves on the island for a long time, but no one assumed that its bowels were literally permeated with a whole system of natural and artificial cavities.
In 2005, an expedition of speleologists and scientists managed to open a six-kilometer-long cave system on the island. In the eastern part of the island, 45 caves were discovered at once, many of which “presented” very valuable finds to archaeologists. Axes, spearheads and arrows, amazing rock carvings, 30 human skeletons — all these were found during the examination of caves.
It is believed that the locals used these caves as shelters during various conflicts that took place on the island. According to Claudio Cristino, an archaeology expert from the University of Chile, the cave shelters could also be used to store fresh water.
Caves on Easter Island are very branched, in addition, natural cavities in the ground complement hundreds of artificial underground passages, not only connecting the caves but also leading deep into the bowels of the island. It is said that caves and passages form several levels, the lowest of which are practically unexplored. Local experts in the island’s dungeons have also become rare, and in fact, back in the 18th century, it was not uncommon for aborigines to cross the island using only underground passages.
What are the lowest levels of the dungeons hiding? It is believed that there may be hundreds of caches with artifacts related to the ancient history of the island. At one time, Thor Heyerdahl and his colleagues managed to descend about 100 meters deep into the island, researchers then discovered several very strange stone figurines; it is still unknown which civilization they were made by. So scientists can expect a lot of interesting things in the depths of the island.
The phenomenon of the Guardian Balls
Scientists understand this perfectly well and have been trying to penetrate the lowest levels of the island’s dungeons for a long time. However, those who descended below the fifth level disappeared without a trace. About 60 people have already disappeared, and after that, the authorities banned the study of the lowest levels. Where did the people disappear to? Nobody knows that. There are rumors that some of the disappeared were allegedly found in a deranged state in Africa or Australia, but they could no longer explain or remember anything.
However, this is hard to believe, as well as the version that tunnels can go from Easter Island to the coast of Chile and to Asia. Some researchers believe that mining was carried out under the island in ancient times, others even believe in the presence of some underground civilization in the depths of Easter, whose representatives kidnap scientists. According to local legends, the underground passages of the island were once laid by mysterious birdmen. Who were they, and were they really? One can only guess about this.
Scientist Professor Ernst encountered a mysterious phenomenon while trying to penetrate the dungeons of Easter Island. The scientist and his colleagues were literally attacked by mysterious energy balls. When the balloons approached people, they felt very unpleasant sensations — from dizziness and nausea to inexplicable fear. When trying to overcome these symptoms by will, they intensified so much that people were forced to turn back. What are these orb guards guarding in the dungeons? What secrets are hidden there?
According to Ernst, the balls are dematerialized ancient inhabitants of the island, they did not allow the researchers to penetrate deep into all the thirteen caves they visited. The presence of such unusual guards can only say those important secrets are actually hidden in the depths of Easter Island. Will scientists ever be able to “negotiate” with these guards and find out what they are guarding?