TOP-7 priceless historical monuments that were destroyed

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Historical and archaeological sites constitute the treasury of the heritage of mankind, which keep traces of its past. They are carefully guarded at the state and even world level. However, practice shows that sometimes ignorance, wars and simple indifference to what was created earlier becomes the reason for the destruction of unique relics. To your attention 7 historical monuments that were irretrievably lost.

1. Il-Ibinu

Il-Ibinu was a large city in southern Nigeria in the 10th-19th centuries and was also the capital of the Kingdom of Benin. The area was so beautiful that it amazed the visiting Europeans. Benin was the center of the slave trade: it was this activity that was the main source of income for the state treasury - Europe knew this place as the Slave Coast. After the ban on the slave trade, Benin changed the specification - it became the main producer of palm oil in Europe.

The history of the legendary city ended sadly in February 1897, when a British punitive expedition under the command of Admiral Harry Rawson ravaged it for 17 days. The soldiers destroyed the Oba palace, robbed and burned the city. The surviving values and architectural elements of the Kingdom of Benin were removed: today, in a number of museums around the world, you can see unique items made of Benin bronze, brass, ivory - everything that remains of the once developed state.

2. Singapore stone

In 1819, in the thickets of the forest at the mouth of the Singapore River, a three-meter sandstone slab was found with an inscription in an ancient language in 50 lines. Then attempts to decrypt did not lead to anything: there was not enough knowledge. However, the British, who appeared in Singapore in 1843, intervened in the matter. Their plans were to build Fort Fullerton on the Rocky Point. The slab became a problem, blocking the passage to the mouth of the river, and the workers simply blew it up.

The surviving fragments with more legible text were sent to Calcutta, to the Museum of the Royal Asiatic Society. What remains of the slab has, of course, been researched by scientists. In particular, it was established that the inscription was made approximately in the X-XIII centuries. in Sanskrit or in ancient Javanese. Today, fragments of an ancient relic are kept in the National Museum of Singapore.

3. Bamiyan Buddha statues

In the VI century. the territory of the Bamiyan Valley was part of the ancient kingdom of Gandhara. Two monolithic statues, 37 m and 55 m high, carved into the rocks, were part of a complex of Buddhist monasteries.

Having existed for almost a millennium and a half, the statues could not resist modern militants: in 2001, a group of radical Taliban decided to destroy the relics. According to their leader Mohammed Omar, they consider the figures to be pagan idols. After shelling from anti-aircraft guns, anti-tank mines, the use of explosives and the launch of rockets, the Buddhas were completely destroyed.

4. Pyramid of Noh Mul

The main temple of the Noh Mul settlement, which was built by the Mayan people more than two thousand years ago, was the main attraction of Belize. It was located on land formally owned by the D-Mar Construction company, but as an antiquity monument it was protected by the state.

But the protection at the state level did not save the ancient relic: in 2013.road builders who needed gravel and limestone - namely, the pyramid was built from these materials - bulldozers practically razed it to the ground, after which only a small fragment remained from the ancient temple. Archaeologists claim that the Noh Mul pyramid can no longer be restored.

5. Mecca

The city of Mecca is rightfully considered one of the world's religious centers. And, ironically, the increase in the number of pilgrims on the Hajj caused the destruction of a number of Muslim monuments: the Saudi Arabian authorities explain the devastation of the territory around the two most important mosques by clearing a place for the pilgrim infrastructure.

So, for the sake of the construction of shopping centers and hotels, several early Islamic historical buildings and monuments were destroyed at once, including 25 monuments, incl. 9 mosques, 6 cemeteries and graves, 9 other historical sites. And places related to the life and work of the Prophet Muhammad are completely destroyed on purpose.

6. Archaeological sites of the Atacama Desert

The Chilean Atacama Desert, thanks to its climate, continues to preserve the relics of ancient civilizations. A striking example of this heritage is geoglyphs - ancient landscape images on dunes, ranging in size from 1 to 115 m, most of which can only be viewed from the air.

However, what nature was able to preserve, mankind sometimes does not value at all. So, in 2008, due to terrorist threats, the rally race, which was supposed to take place in Africa, was postponed to Atacama. The organizers did not agree on the route with the authorities, and the irreparable happened: more than half of the geoglyphs, ancient cemeteries and other monuments were damaged by 500 off-road vehicles that participated in the races.

7. Ruins of Babylon

Of course, not only human ignorance destroys historical monuments, many relics were destroyed by the war. So, during the US military operation in Iraq, the American military worked, which, among other things, had to "protect historical values" from marauders and destruction. But they didn’t think of anything better than to smash the base right on the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon.

Of course, no one bombed the ruins of the historical monument from the air and armored vehicles or artillery, but the inhabitants of the base seriously damaged the relics: the tracks of the tanks made potholes in the ancient streets, garbage and fuel littered the archaeological sites, and the surviving reliefs retained traces of attempts to disassemble them into souvenirs.