Ancient statues of reptilians on the island of nuku hiva. Mysterious statues of the island of nuku hiva From time immemorial

Africa

The town of Temehea Tohua is located on the island of Nuku Hiva, the largest atoll in the archipelago of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia.

On this unique island are perhaps the most outlandish statues ever seen by man. Some ancient sculptures depict creatures that appear to be extraterrestrial aliens. And everyone who has landed on this earth wants to solve the riddle: who are they - the fruit of the sculptor's wild imagination or something that really descended from the distant space wastelands to this island?

Nuku Hiva is part of the Northern Group of the Marquesas Islands. Area - approximately 365 sq. kilometers, it is the second largest of the islands of French Polynesia. Its name can be translated as "Majestic Island". Indeed, its appearance justifies such a name, since the base of the island is two old volcanoes, among which a plateau has formed. On the plateau is the city of Taiohoae, the capital of the island, the former crater of the volcano formed a deep bay in this place, and around it there is a wall of mountain peaks. The most high point islands - Mount Tekao, which reaches a mark of 1224 meters. In total, a little more than 2,600 people live on the island in three main settlements.

At first glance, they seem to be just " big statues", however, upon closer examination, you notice more and more interesting features: unusually large eyes, massive oblong heads, frail / huge bodies and other attributes, the presence of which causes bewilderment as to the origin of the "models" that inspired the creator of these sculptures.

The atoll was previously known as Madison Island.

As a result of archaeological excavations carried out by an American expedition in the 60s of the last century, it was established that people appeared on the island in 150 AD. They were engaged in the processing of stone, from which they built housing, in pottery. Starting from 1100, many stone structures were built over three centuries. The famous tiki stone sculptures also date from this time. In 1913, there was an unsuccessful attempt to annex the island by the Americans. The appearance of the first Catholic missionaries on the island dates back to 1839, and already in 1842 the island passed into the possession of France.

A decade later, a Catholic cathedral was laid in the capital of the island, but Christianity was difficult to spread, this was prevented by incessant tribal wars. In addition to the wars, the population of the island began to die out due to diseases that the Europeans brought with them. Previously, such diseases were not known on the island, the inhabitants had no immunity against them. The population decline was facilitated by slave traders, who also visited Nuku Hiva. As a result, the number of inhabitants in 1934 was only 634 people, although in 1842 about 12 thousand people lived on the island.

Herman Melville wrote the book Typee, which is based on his experiences in the Taipivai Valley in eastern Nuku Hiva. Robert Louis Stevenson's first landing on the Casco expedition in 1888 was at Hatihoy, located in the northern part of Nuku Hiva. Also, Nuku Hiva became another location for filming the 4th season of the American reality show "Survivors", which took place throughout the archipelago of the Marquesas Islands.

Warrior of the island of Nuku Hiva, 1813

In ancient times, Nuku Hiva was divided into two regions: more than 2/3 of the island was occupied by the province of Te Lyi, and the rest of the territory belonged to the Tai Pi community.

Recent research shows that the first settlers arrived here 2,000 years ago from Samoa and then colonized Tahiti in Hawaii, the Cook Islands and New Zealand. The legends say that the all-creating deity It promised a wife to the one who builds a house in a day, and by gathering together the earth, he created the islands, calling them parts of the house.

So, the island of Nuku Hiva is considered a "roof". And all that remained unused, he piled into a heap, forming the hill of Ua Huka. For centuries, the population of this island has increased, and at such a pace that by the time the first European arrived on this earth, it ranged from 50 to 100 thousand inhabitants on this small piece of land in the middle of the ocean.
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Of course, food was of paramount importance here. The basis of the diet was fruits breadfruit, as well as taro, bananas and cassava. As for protein products, fish dominated here, although their quantity was limited, given the number of people that she needed to feed. Pigs, chickens, dogs were also the object of culinary passions of the inhabitants of the island.

Breadfruit

There is still scientific debate about why so many Polynesian tribes practiced cannibalism. According to one theory, eating their own kind was more likely to compensate for the lack of protein in the diet than served for ritual ceremonies. However, cannibalism played a large role in ritual purposes. So, the sacrifice brought to the sea deity Ika was "caught" in the same way as a fish, and hung by a hook above the altar like an underwater inhabitant.

The one who was supposed to become a victim of a sacred ritual was tied up and hung on a tree for a certain time, after which he was brainwashed with a club. It is believed that women and children engaged in cannibalism only for food, while male warriors sacrificed to deities and ate opponents defeated in battle in order to get their strength. For the same purpose, they also kept the skulls of defeated enemies.

Now the island of Nuku Hiva is visited mainly by tourists as part of sea cruises, combining sightseeing of the island with other trips. However, there are tourists who prefer to be alone with nature, to feel like Robinsons, pioneers. For such people, the island of Nuku Hiva is a real paradise. You can get to it by plane from Haiti, or by water. Such a trip, although it will take longer, will allow you to enjoy magnificent ocean landscapes along the way.

Although the population of the island is small, the island itself is quite large, it takes two hours to get to the hotel from the airport, and it takes a whole day to drive around the island.

You can stay at the hotel, which is a complex of twenty bungalows located on a hill extending above sandy beach. From the windows of the bungalow offers amazing views of the bay. All bungalows are decorated by different designers, so each one has a unique look. All the necessary modern amenities, restaurant, bar and swimming pool make a stay in this hotel complex very comfortable.

There is no pronounced rainy season here, there are no such natural disasters as tsunamis and typhoons. average temperature air on the island - 26 degrees Celsius, which makes the rest very pleasant. For tourists, there is everything for active rest- you can ride a horse, take a walk on a motor boat, diving and deep-sea fishing are possible.

In addition, every traveler who arrives on the island of Nuku Hiva should definitely get acquainted with local attractions. Among them is the Cathedral of Our Lady, which is built from stones of different colors and shapes. The cathedral presents statues, which were made by sculptors living on different islands of Marchesia. During a tour of the island, you will be shown the smallest Catholic church in the town of Anaho, will be taken to the beautiful Anaho Valley, where there is a waterfall 350 meters high. And from the top of Muake Hill, you can see the entire island of Nuku Hiva at once and the statue of the Virgin Mary, standing on top of a peak that rises above Hatiheu Bay.

Such an excursion simply cannot leave any of the tourists indifferent to this exotic island.

Here is what the captain of the Russian warship Nadezhda Ivan Kruzenshtern wrote about this island in his diary:

“During a famine, a husband kills his wife, a father of children, an adult son of his elderly parents, they bake and fry their meat and devour it with a feeling of great pleasure. Even the most nukagivkas, in whose eyes lust burns, even they take part in these terrible feasts! .. Only fear keeps them from killing and devouring the sailors who come to them.

True, a year ago the world community had a reason to doubt that the ugly diet was abandoned by the locals forever. A tourist from Germany mysteriously disappeared, and the newspapers immediately wrote that he was eaten by his own guide.

By interviewing the Nukahiv population without using special methods of inquiry, I managed to establish: complete nonsense. Nobody ate German. The Polynesian shot him while hunting for goats, buried the body, and, according to the girlfriend of the murdered, tried to abuse her, for which the gendarmes did not find any evidence. For two months the adversary hid in the forests, but then his dad told him: “Son, this is not good. Go and surrender to the gendarmes." Which he immediately did, after proceeding to a prison in Tahiti.

The fact that we are indirectly related to the goats, which played a tragic role in this story, gives a special piquancy to what happened. The descendants of cannibals are convinced that the very first goats on Nuka Khiva were Russian! That they were allegedly left here as a gift by Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern, one of the first Europeans who visited the island. And that later the goats bred to such an extent that now they have to be hunted with the help of the Germans.

I report: these are speculations that are offensive to every Russian patriot. For the ninth month of the voyage, the crews of the ships "Neva" and "Nadezhda" were in dire need of meat, and would never have given scarce goats to some cannibals. Moreover, it was precisely because of the lack of meat that the Russian sailors quarreled with the civilian "jacket" - the chamberlain Nikolai Rezanov, known to everyone from the opera "Juno" and "Avos", who turned out to be not a hero-lover, but a dissolute narcissistic bastard. But that is another story.

In many places on our planet, archaeologists find unusual artifacts that do not reveal the mysteries of history, but only increase their number. One of these artifacts is the outlandish statues of the island of Nuku Hiva, which have no analogues on Earth.

Looking at them, one involuntarily thinks about what wild fantasy could create these mysterious creatures. Or, perhaps, alien reptilians who once visited the island served as models for ancient sculptures?

The quadrangular island of Nuku Hiva (formerly Madison) is an atoll with an area of 330 square kilometers, its length is 30 kilometers, and its width is 15 kilometers. This is the most big Island Marquesas Archipelago of French Polynesia.

Nuku Hiva in translation means "Majestic Island", and this is fully justified. It's incredible here beautiful nature. Lush greenery adjoins mountain heights, in warm oceanic waters a diverse, colorful undersea world staggers the imagination of even the most sophisticated traveler.

Complementing this natural picture are two extinct volcanoes surrounded by pointed rocks. The crater of one of them was filled with water, this is rarely seen anywhere. Plus, the absence of any natural disasters and rainy seasons. Absolutely heaven on earth. We can say that Nuku Hiva is a sparsely populated island. A little more than 2 thousand inhabitants live here permanently.

FROM THE DEEP OF THE CENTURIES

In the middle of the last century, American archaeologists carried out excavations on the island. Based on them, it was established that the first inhabitants appeared here as early as 150 AD. e. They arrived from the island of Samoa, then they were gradually colonized New Zealand, Cook Islands, Tahiti and Hawaii.

The population was mainly engaged in pottery and stone processing. That is why stone houses stood on the island already in 1100, famous sculptures tiki and other structures.

As the centuries passed, the population of the island grew at a tremendous pace. By the time the first Europeans appeared on Nuku Hiva, about 100 thousand inhabitants lived on this small piece of land in the middle of the ocean. During the existence of Nuku Hiva, there were attempts to capture the island by the Americans, but they were unsuccessful.

In 1842, the island began to belong to France, at the same time the construction of the Catholic Cathedral began. But, even despite the constant visits of missionaries, Christianity took root here with difficulty. In addition, the population of the island gradually decreased. Tribal wars claimed many lives. In addition, Europeans brought here diseases to which the natives had no immunity.

So, in 1863, about 1,000 people died as a result of a smallpox epidemic. Peruvian slave traders replenished the stocks of slaves here, and in 1883 the opium brought by the Chinese finally “solved” the demographic problem. And in 1934, only about 600 people remained on the island.

Like any other people, the local population has a legend about the origin of Nuku Hiva. According to her, the god Ono boasted to his wife that he would build a house in just one day. To do this, he collected the whole earth, from it he created islands, each of which corresponded to a certain part of the house. Nuku Hiva in this design was the roof. The rest of the land Ono collected in a heap - thus turned out the island of Ua-Huka, now located east of Nuku Hiva.

GOURMETS OF NUKU KHIVA

Since such a small piece of land was densely populated, the problem of subsistence was perhaps the most important. Basically, the natives ate plant foods: breadfruit, bananas, cassava, etc. It is clear that protein was always in short supply. Even the fish that could be caught in the ocean waters were not enough to feed so many mouths. Not to mention pigs and chickens, even dogs were not disdained here.

Perhaps that is why, according to scientists, many local tribes practiced cannibalism. More often to replenish protein in the diet than for ritual ceremonies. But the latter cannot be discounted either. The inhabitants of the island cajoled the sea deity Ika, bringing him human sacrifices.

The unfortunate one, like a fish, was caught on a hook, and then he was tied up and hung on a tree above the altar. For a while, the victim was not touched, and then they began to beat him on the head with a baton until his brains were blown out.

And some scientists believe that only for women and children eating their own kind was necessary.for food. The men of the tribe thus appropriated the strength of the defeated enemy. For the same purpose, they collected the skulls of the people they had eaten.

ALIENS

It would seem that there is nothing special in Nuku Hiva: beautiful nature, exotic local customs - everything is like on other Polynesian islands. Only on this island is the village of Temehea Tohua, next to which there are several unique sculptures that have no analogues in the world.

Presumably, the sculptures are stone deities of the ancient Polynesians dating back to the 11th-14th centuries. Actually, are there many stone idols on Earth? Only tiki idols, as they are called, are special. All of them have a strange appearance. It seems that the ancient sculptors carved out of stone clearly not earthly inhabitants. The creatures immortalized in stone had bodies with bulging bellies, large oblong heads, on which huge eyes stood out.

And they were dressed in clothes very similar to spacesuits. Scientists have not yet been able to figure out what it is: a figment of the imagination of a crazy sculptor or the impression of a meeting with alien creatures. But even the most skeptical researchers are sure that there is nothing human in these statues.

Meanwhile, tics are very reminiscent of the descriptions of guests from distant space that our contemporaries met. It turns out that the inhabitants of Nuku Hiva also saw them? And not just seen, but fell under their power, if they were revered as deities and worshiped them. The largest statue is 2.5 meters in height. Not a single sculpture repeats another, each depicts a specific deity. locals still convinced that tiki carry the power of the depicted god. One helps in military affairs, the second saves from trouble, the third contributes to a rich harvest, etc.

Those who adhere to the version of aliens believe that different groups of aliens served as models for tiki. Some sculptures look like reptilians - the most ancient and evil, according to ufologists, creatures in the universe. By the way, their civilization has reached a high level of development, and its representatives could well control people. This is about the worship of tiki.

Another group of sculptures, according to the same ufologists, depicts "gray aliens". They vaguely resemble a human with a frail body, thin arms and a huge head. Only disproportionately large eyes and mouths betray alien creatures in them.

It is believed that reptilians first appeared on the island. They were able to enslave people, make them worship, become deities for them. And then they created "gray aliens", using those as slaves. Therefore, the sculptures are so different from each other. But all these are just assumptions, fantasies and conjectures. And who knows if humanity will ever be able to unravel the mystery of the idols of the island of Nuku Hiva.

“Majestic land in the middle of the water” - this is how the name of the island of Nuku Hiva is translated from the local dialect, and one can only guess about the essence of the “majesty” of the island.
The panorama of the island from the plane leaves no doubt about its volcanic origin. The volcanoes that once rose above the water and created the island have long since died out, and their craters have collapsed.

Geography

Nuku Hiva is located in the Northern Group of the Marquesas Islands. largest island the entire archipelago. It is located almost in the center Pacific Ocean, at a considerable distance from the mainland. And even from Papeete - the capital of French Polynesia, of which it is a part - it is separated by one and a half thousand kilometers.
Scattered throughout the island are basalt cliffs several hundred meters high, forming the plateau of Tobias, overgrown with tall grass. They remind you that Nuku Hiva, like everyone else, is of volcanic origin. top of the high mountain- Tekao - the highest point of the huge cone extinct volcano. It appeared 2-5 million years ago, forming an island, since then its activity has gradually decreased.
Although the island is located in the tropics, east winds prevail here, they do not bring humid air masses, so drought on the island is not uncommon.

Story

Nuku Hiva is one of the few islands in this region of the Pacific Ocean, where the exact date of arrival of people from Samoa on the island is established. Archaeological excavations definitely indicate the year 150. With them, these people also brought pottery, which had already been widespread on the islands of Samoa and Tonga. Nuku Hiva has become one of the main centers of civilization in Eastern Polynesia.
For almost a thousand years - until 1100 - people settled on the island, which turned out to be quite difficult. Archaeologists have been able to trace how, gradually, the locals were able to master the technique of processing the stone that they used in the construction of housing, leaving huts made of palm leaves.
The period from 1100 to 1400 is the heyday of stone construction: during these three centuries, most of the stone structures on the island were built. These include the world-famous tiki sculptures.
The first known Western traveler to land on the island and describe it was the American Joseph Ingram. In April 1791, his ship reached the shores of the island, and thanks to him the island was mapped. Only a few months behind Ingram was the Frenchman Etienne Marchand, who came ashore in the same year.
In the future, the island was used by ships of sandalwood traders, whalers and adventurers who replenished their water and provisions on Nuku Hiva. In 1804, Russian traveler Admiral Ivan Kruzenshtern visited Nuku Khiva.
Relations with the local population were not easy. In 1826, the Russian expedition sloop Krotkiy approached the island. The visit ended with the natives killing the midshipman and two sailors, and ritually eating their bodies.
The islanders began to abandon cannibalism only after the first Catholic missionaries appeared on Nuku Hiva in 1839. In 1842, when France captured the island, the population was 12 thousand people.
Then there was a story common for the islands of Oceania of that period: the Europeans brought smallpox to Nuku Hiva, against which the natives had no immunity, and they died en masse. The population also decreased due to the activities of the Peruvian slave traders, who took people to South America, and also because of the spread of opium brought here by the Chinese in 1883.
And so it happened that by 1934 the population of Nuku Hiva was only 635 people.
Currently, the island is part of the overseas community of France.
The island of Nuku Hiva turned out to be in the very center of the Pacific Ocean, which some researchers believe is sufficient reason to consider it an ancient spaceport for aliens.
The presence of aliens on Nuku Hiva has not yet been proven, but the real "aliens" - European sailors - left behind diseases from which the island almost died out completely.
Nuku Hiva - main island a commune of the same name in the Marquesas Islands, which includes four more islands: Motu-Iti, Motu-One, Hatutu and Eiao. The capital of the commune and the island is the city of Taioahae, located on south coast, near the bay of the same name. This bay is part of an ancient volcanic crater that has partially collapsed, and its wall has slid into the ocean. The town appeared and grew on the site of the old fort, which the French built, fearing not an attack from the sea, but an attack by the natives: the local tribes waged endless bloody wars.
In addition to the capital, there are two more on the island small villages- Taipivai and Hatiheu.
Nuku Hiva is the most populous island in the Marquesas archipelago, with a population of only 3,000. (the result of smallpox epidemics). But at the same time, the population density is one of the lowest in all of French Polynesia: the size of the island affects.
At different times, the population of the island fluctuated, and this sometimes depended on the most unexpected factors. So, in the first half of the XIX century. Peruvian slave traders began to take the islanders to South America and sell them on plantations. But the Catholic Church intervened, which managed to return to the island those slaves who were still alive. However, when they returned to Nuku Hiva, it turned out that they had brought typhus with them.
The islanders speak both the language of the metropolis - French, and the dialects of the Northern Marquesas Islands, surprising with a small number of consonants.
The local population lives, like hundreds of years ago, at the expense of subsidiary farming. They grow breadfruit, taro, cassava, coconuts and many kinds of fruits.
The French authorities tried to raise cattle here, since the grass on the plateau of Tobias is in abundance. But the islanders did not know how to take care of the pigs, many animals fled and ran wild. Now wild pigs are hunted with guns. Pigs are also raised in households, but few, preferring goats. They go out to sea for fish, the catches here are plentiful.
The island of Nuku Hiva is of great interest not only to archaeologists, but also to ufologists who are looking for possible traces alien civilizations on the ground.
On the island there is an extraordinary collection of stone sculptures - tiki, installed in the XI-XIV centuries. For many years, scientists have been wrestling with a riddle, trying to determine what or who these pot-bellied creatures depict with elongated heads, a flattened nose, a protruding jaw, a mouth to the ears, twisted lips and huge eyes. The “little men” froze in different poses, and the ancient masters captured them at the moment of expressing a certain feeling: amazement, thoughtfulness, mockery, contempt…
The statues are presented assembled in groups, carved on one side of a stone block, or they are free-standing statues under 2.5 m in height. No sculpture repeats the other. But all with some common features: a large head, mouth, eyes ... Because of the resemblance to reptiles, these creatures were called reptilians.
The creatures really resemble alien aliens - as they are presented on the pages of ufological publications. These statues have no analogues in the world.
Locals worship tiki statues, they believe that they fulfill wishes if they are treated with respect.

general information

Location: the center of the Pacific Ocean.
Administrative affiliation: Nuku Hiva commune, Marquesas Islands, overseas community, France
Administrative center: the city of Taioahae - 2132 people. (2012).
Other settlements : villages of Taipivai - 464 people (2012) and Hatikheu - 370 people. (2012).
Languages: French and Tahitian - official, dialects of Northern Marquesas and Tai-Pi.
Ethnic composition: Polynesian - 92.6%, French - 5.6%, other - 1.8% (2002).
Religion: Catholicism.
Currency unit: French Pacific franc.

Numbers

Length: 30 km.
Width: 15 km.
Area: 387 km2.
Population: 2966 people (2012).
Population density: 7.7 people / km 2.
highest point: Mount Tekao (1224 m).
Distance: 1500 km. northeast of Papeete (Tahiti, capital of French Polynesia), 4800 km west of North America(Mexico).

Climate and weather

Equatorial Marine.
Average annual temperature: +26 - +27°С.
Average annual rainfall: about 1300 mm.
Relative humidity: 70%.

Economy

Agriculture: crop production (breadfruit, taro, cassava, coconut palm, fruits), animal husbandry (goats, pigs).
Sea fishing.
Services sector: tourism.

Attractions

Natural

Seamounts Clark, Lawson, Jean Gogel, Tobii Plateau, Mount Tekao, Waipo Falls, Te-Khenua Wastes, Muake Hill (864 m).

historical

Tiki statues (XI-XIV centuries), petroglyphs.

Ethnographic

Wuaa and Taipivai settlements.

Cult

Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady and Church in the village of Anaho.

Curious facts

■ Unlike most of the islands in French Polynesia, Nuku Hiva, like all the Marquesas Islands, is not surrounded by protective coral barrier reef.
■ Detailed description The islands and the customs of the local population were left by the American writer Herman Melville (1819-1891), author of the classic novel Moby Dick. From the age of 18, he sailed the seas on a packet boat. In 1841, Melville went on the whaling ship Akushnet to south seas. Here he quarreled with the boatswain, escaped from the ship and was captured by the natives of Nuku Hiva. Lived on the island until he was freed by the crew of an American warship. Melville described his life on the island in the novel "Taipi, or a Quick Look at Polynesian Life" (1846), which brought him immediate fame.
■ In the XIX century. France declared the island a "deportation zone": according to the law of 1850, especially dangerous criminals accused of attempting to assassinate the king (it was Napoleon III, the last monarch of France), and subsequently the President of France, as well as those with weapons in hands opposed the French authorities. The most famous exile on the island is Republican Louis Langomasino, a member of the "Lyon Plot" in 1850 against Napoleon III.
■ The island of Nuku Hiva has been erroneously “rediscovered” several times, and each traveler called it by its own name. Therefore, on old maps, the island is called Marchand or Madison.
■ The Waipo Falls, flowing down the slope of Mount Takeo, is the largest in Polynesia (outside of New Zealand and Hawaiian Islands). Its height is 350 m.
■ Zoologists have established that the wild pigs of Nuku Hiva appeared as a result of natural crossing of a Polynesian pig, brought here by the first settlers, and a wild boar, introduced by Europeans.
■ The island of Nuku Hiva appears in French science fiction writer Jules Verne's 1860 novel Paris in the 20th Century. Describing the world of the future as he imagined it a hundred years later, in 1960, Jules Verne writes, that Nuku Hiva will become one of the world's leading exchange centers along with London, Berlin, New York and Sydney.
■ After excavations at the site of ancient settlements on the island, archaeologists suggested that its population several centuries ago ranged from 50 to 100 thousand people.
■ According to European Union law, French polynesia, and with it the island of Nuku Hiva, was to be included in the EU along with France. But in 2002, France achieved a 20-year moratorium on the inclusion of FP in the EU, thus preventing foreign investment in the economy of the islands and wanting to keep them exclusively for itself.
■ Ufologists say that reptilians are the most ancient and vicious creatures in the galaxy.

DK2AMM, DL6JGN, GM4FDM, PA3EWP will be active from Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands (IOTA OC-027) 3 - 15 March 2016 as TX7EU.
They will operate on 40 - 10m CW, SSB, RTTY.
QSL via DK2AMM.
Address for QSL direct:
Ernö Ogonovszky, Am Steinbruch 4, 09123 Chemnitz, Germany.

News TX7EU March 3, 2016

The team arrived on the island of Nuku Hiva. They installed the first antenna. Activity is scheduled to start on March 4, 2016.

Nuku Hiva island

For any historian or traveler, the name Nuku Hiva is immediately associated with something mysterious, or rather even supernatural. And everything is unusual in Nuku Hiva: from the origin of the island and its attractions, ending contemporary stories associated with it.

Hatiheu Bay, Nuku Hiva Island, Marquesas Islands. Author of the photo - Steve Berardi.

The foundation of the island is a real masterpiece

The island of Nuku Hiva is two huge ancient volcanoes, as if nested into each other by some kind of Master. This giant "matryoshka" has formed two vast basins with amazingly beautiful basalt slopes. One of the basins surrounds the capital of the island, and the crater of the extinct volcano itself has turned into a deep bay with mountain peaks impressive size on the coast.

Cliffs, immersed in the waters of the vast Pacific Ocean, cause dumb delight in everyone who admires this unearthly beauty that came to us from antiquity. It is not for nothing that the island used to be called "Majestic" - this is felt in any piece of island landscapes.

Nuku Hiva island, Marquesas Islands. Author of the photo - Rita Willaert.

Inhabitants of an island with eccentric tastes

The population of a small piece of land, at first not numerous (aboriginal people lived here already in 150 AD), to XVIII century increased to about 100 thousand people, and then began to gradually decrease. The reason for this was the wars between representatives of different tribes, as well as various infections and viruses brought to the island by Europeans, and to which the islanders had no immunity (up to a thousand people could die during an epidemic). Well, the Chinese opium brought to Nuku Hiva at the end of the 19th century completely “put things in order” with demography: in the 30s of the 20th century, only a little more than five hundred people lived here. Now the population of the island has increased slightly and has about 2 thousand inhabitants.

But it is not such jumps in population that are unnatural, but a wild custom, or a terrible need for aborigines to ... eat their own kind.

Until now, it is difficult to draw a correct conclusion about the reasons for such an exotic "product" included in the diet of the islanders. Perhaps, the densely populated small piece of land with the presence of mainly plant foods on it and, as a result, a lack of protein. Apparently, such a number of people could not fill the need for protein with fish, or living creatures, which there was also no particular opportunity to breed in sufficient quantities.

But there is another version of the cause of cannibalism: the rituals of sacrifice. The inhabitants of Nuku Hiva thus cajoled the deities in whom they believed and feared their wrath, and the men of the tribe, having eaten the defeated enemy, appropriated his power and strength. The skulls of eaten people were carefully kept for the same purpose.

One could attribute this to the manifestations of wild ancient customs, if not for one extraordinary circumstance.

More recently, in 2011, in pursuit of extreme adventures, a 40-year-old German man came to the island with his companion to hunt goats. Taking a guide from the locals with him, he went to the mountains, and after a while the islander returned and told the hunter's girlfriend that he was wounded and remained in the mountains. When the woman decided to go to the rescue of her friend, the conductor tied her up and did not let her go anywhere. When the German woman managed to free herself, she reported the incident to the police. The search led the police to an extinct fire, which contained the remains of a man with all the signs of a cannibal meal. And the unfortunate guide from the island simply ran away.

Apparently, cannibals are never former...

True, there is another, older, but more optimistic story. This is the story of the navigator Melville, who once escaped from the ship and secretly landed on Nuku Hiva. The natives not only did not eat the sailor - they accepted him as a friend. Later, becoming a writer, he described the history of his stay in the society of the islanders in the book "Taipi". There is even a monument on the island in memory of the sailor.

So the tastes and preferences of cannibals are incomprehensible and it is worth delving into them. Moreover, Nuku Hava has more interesting riddles.

Hikokua, Nuku Hiva island, Marquesas Islands. Author of the photo - Rita Willaert.

Statues without analogues or monuments to the other world

Unique statues of tiki idols, which have no analogues anywhere in the world - main riddle islands. No one knows who is carved in stone and the history of what creatures is depicted in these statues.

Outlandish figures of two types, very often carved by groups (or families?), suggest that it was here that aliens stopped, or maybe even lived at all, about which there are so many disputes among earthlings.

Huge, wide-set eyes of a round shape, similar to portholes, a flattened large nose and stretched full lips do not make a very pleasant impression and evoke a certain feeling of uncertainty and fear.

The largest tiki sculpture is 2.5 meters high. No idol repeats another. Their number and diversity eloquently testifies to the completely incomprehensible religion and culture of the island.

At one time, Christian missionaries tried to bring elements of their faith into the life of the islanders. Nuku Hiva even has a small Catholic church, the Notre Dame Catholic Cathedral, built from stones of various colors and shapes, and a statue of the Virgin Mary on a mountain peak above the bay. But Christianity was difficult to spread and accepted with reluctance. Local beliefs and attitudes are deeply embedded in the minds of the inhabitants. Many of them are convinced that each idol carries a different power: help in battles, salvation from various troubles, growing crops, and more. What kind of God is here?

But no one knows for sure what tics carry in themselves, just as it is not known how they appeared on the island.

Only one thing can be said with complete certainty: our planet is filled with miracles and mysteries, and it is not known when the secret of idols will be unraveled. mysterious island Nuku Khiva.

In many places on our planet, archaeologists find unusual artifacts that do not reveal the mysteries of history, but only increase their number. One of these artifacts is strange statues of the island of Nuku Hiva that have no analogues on Earth.

The quadrangular island of Nuku Hiva (formerly Madison) is an atoll with an area of 330 square kilometers, its length is 30 kilometers, and its width is 15 kilometers. It is the largest island in the Marquesas Archipelago of French Polynesia.

Nuku Hiva in translation means "Majestic Island", and this is fully justified. There is incredibly beautiful nature here. Lush greenery adjoins mountain heights, in warm oceanic waters a diverse, colorful underwater world staggers the imagination of even the most sophisticated traveler.

FROM THE DEEP OF THE CENTURIES

In the middle of the last century, American archaeologists carried out excavations on the island. Based on them, it was established that the first inhabitants appeared here as early as 150 AD. e. They arrived from the island of Samoa, then they gradually colonized New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Tahiti and Hawaii.

The population was mainly engaged in pottery and stone processing. That is why stone houses, famous tiki sculptures and other structures stood on the island already in 1100.

GOURMETS OF NUKU KHIVA

And some scientists believe that only for women and children eating their own kind was necessary.
for food. The men of the tribe thus appropriated the strength of the defeated enemy. For the same purpose, they collected the skulls of the people they had eaten.

ALIENS

It seems that the ancient sculptors carved out of stone clearly not earthly inhabitants. The creatures immortalized in stone had bodies with bulging bellies, large oblong heads, on which huge eyes stood out.

The largest sculpture is 2.5 meters high. Not a single sculpture repeats another, each depicts a specific deity. Local residents are still convinced that tiki carry the power of the depicted god. One helps in military affairs, the second saves from trouble, the third contributes to a rich harvest, etc.

Those who adhere to the version of aliens believe that different groups of aliens served as models for tiki. Some of the sculptures are like reptilians- the most ancient and evil, according to ufologists, creatures in the universe. By the way, their civilization has reached a high level of development, and its representatives could well control people. This is about the worship of tiki.

But all this is just speculation, fantasy and speculation. And who knows if humanity will ever be able to unravel the mystery of the idols of the island of Nuku Hiva.

Galina MINNIKOVA