Taken as the sun began to rise, the photograph shows the moai standing on the Ahu Ko Te Riku as the sky was painted with pinkish hues by the sun. The moai can be seen to have eyes of white coral with obsidian pupils. That some of the moai ever even had eyes at all was only discovered when the archeologist Sergio Rapu found an intact eye in 1978 during the excavation of an ahu. At first it was thought to be a ceremonial bowl, but Rapu realized that the name of the object in Rapanui mean eye. The original eye was put into the museum on the island, but copies were added to several of the moai. Tourists were paying fees to have eyes added to moai for photographs, but the process of fixing and removing the eyes was damaging the moai. Finally, the Rapanui Council of Elders determined that only the moai in this photograph should have permanent eyes.