Q 01/05

Hawaii and Easter Island mark two corners of a vast Pacific island region; which country marks the third?

A) Fiji

B) Tonga

C) New Zealand

D) Papua New Guinea

Answer · why

C) New Zealand

New Zealand: seafarers believed to descend from the Lapita people went on to settle all three corners of the region.

Q 02/05

Who are Easter Island's giant moai statues believed to represent?

A) Sea gods

B) Sky gods

C) Ancestors

D) Defeated enemies

Answer · why

C) Ancestors

Ancestors, and size mattered: the bigger the statue, the more standing it gave the chief or tribe that raised it.

Q 03/05

What lies buried beneath the famous heads on Easter Island's quarry slopes?

A) Their bodies

B) Stone platforms

C) Burial chambers

D) Drainage tunnels

Answer · why

A) Their bodies

Their bodies lie buried, and photos of these half-hidden statues spread the myth that the moai are only heads.

Q 04/05

Which Dutch explorer gave Easter Island its name after sighting it on Easter Sunday 1722?

A) Dirk Hartog

B) Jacob Roggeveen

C) Abel Tasman

D) Willem Janszoon

Answer · why

B) Jacob Roggeveen

Jacob Roggeveen's landing party shot dead about a dozen islanders.

Q 05/05

How do Rapa Nui oral traditions say the moai travelled from the quarry to their platforms?

A) They walked

B) Giants carried them

C) They floated by sea

D) They rolled on logs

Answer · why

A) They walked

They walked, the legends say, moved by mana, and modern experiments have 'walked' replicas upright by rocking them side to side with ropes.