Select your outward journey date
Select your return journey date

Orongo ceremonial village

Our expert Chile

Orongo ceremonial village

Orongo ceremonial village Orongo The Orongo ceremonial village. © Patrick de Wilde

Set at the top of Rano Kau volcano, Orongo ceremonial village has about fifty basalt houses of elliptic shape. This is where the man-bird competition took place (tangata manu). This sacred character is carved on many stones; it has a human body and a thick bird bill. Other figures represent MakeMake, the Pascuan people's supreme God, with a distinctly stylised a face with round eyes, thick eyebrows and marked with a vertical line for the nose.

Monuments

Other reasons to go

  1.   Landscapes

  2.   Coasts

  3.   Towns

  4.   The fauna and flora

  5.   Arts and culture