57 A Mysterious Island

If mysteries fascinate you, you might try looking into the one surrounding Easter Island, which lies in the South Pacific. Ever since the Dutch explorer Jakob Roggeveen discovered the small, isolated island in 1722, experts have remained perplexed as to the origin of the strange artifacts found there.

Roggeveen found the extinct volcanoes on the island interesting, but he was most astonished by the more than 600 huge statues on the island. The statues were almost identical, each carved in the shape of a human head approximately 40 feet high and weighing about 50 tons. All the heads gazed sternly out to sea. The figures were carved from a type of volcanic rock called tufa.

Roggeveen later found the quarry where the tufa was mined. He also discovered 150 more partially finished statues and evidence that seemed to suggest that their sculptors had, for some unknown reason, stopped working rather suddenly.

Many questions remain concerning the strange stone heads of Easter Island. Contemporary archaeologists who have investigated the site have uncovered more questions than answers. Many of the statues were discovered to have bodies buried deep in the ground. The reason for this is unknown. Archaeologists have also puzzled over how the enormous stone figures were moved up to ten miles from their original construction sites—a seemingly impossible task, because the island has few trees that could be used as rollers. Further investigations may someday yield the answers to the mysterious questions surrounding Easter Island. But it is just as possible that the mystery will remain forever unsolved.

57 一座神秘的岛屿

如果你对谜团感兴趣，或许可以研究一下南太平洋上复活节岛周围的谜团。自从荷兰探险家雅各布·罗赫芬1722年发现这座孤立的小岛以来，专家们一直对岛上发现的奇特文物的起源感到困惑。

罗赫芬觉得岛上的死火山很有趣，但最让他震惊的是岛上600多座巨大的雕像。这些雕像几乎一模一样，每座都被雕刻成人头的形状，高约40英尺，重约50吨。所有的头像都严肃地凝视着大海。这些雕像由一种叫做凝灰岩的火山岩雕刻而成。

罗赫芬后来找到了开采凝灰岩的采石场。他还发现了另外150座未完工的雕像，以及一些证据，这些证据似乎表明，出于某种未知的原因，雕刻者们相当突然地停止了工作。

关于复活节岛的奇特石像，仍有许多问题有待解答。调查过该遗址的当代考古学家发现的问题比答案更多。许多雕像被发现有埋在地下深处的身躯，其原因不得而知。考古学家们还困惑于这些巨大的石像如何从最初的建造地点被移动了多达十英里——这似乎是一项不可能完成的任务，因为岛上几乎没有可以用作滚轮的树木。未来的进一步调查或许能解开复活节岛周围的神秘问题，但这些谜团也有可能永远无法解开。