Rano Kau

Panorama of the Rano Kao

The Rano Kao is an up to 320 m high, extinct shield volcano in the south west of Easter Island, the rock has been dated to an age of about 1 million years. The 200 m deep summit crater is a caused by the collapse of the volcano summit caldera. He is with a diameter of 1.6 km of the largest volcanic crater on Easter Island. The crater rim is slightly caved to the southwest towards the sea. The three coastal upstream Motus - Kaokao Motu, Motu Iti and Motu Nui - are probably the remnants of parasitic volcanoes of the Rano Kao.

The filled with fresh water lake inside the crater is half silted up. Here comes - as in Rano Raraku - yet the company headquartered in the Americas Totora ( Scirpus californicus) before that spread itself before human settlement on the island. The reed was used in many ways by the natives of Easter Island, for example, for the construction of boats and to cover the roofs.

At the Rano Kao are the remains of the worship Orongo with formerly 53 houses and many petroglyphs of the birdman cult. To the north is the town of Hanga Roa, with about 3000 inhabitants and in 1960 built and extended in 1970 by NASA Mataveri International Airport.