What it used to look like:
View from the top:
What's left of it now:
Posted on 05/14/2013 5:32:14 AM PDT by Perdogg
Bulldozers and backhoes have essentially destroyed one of Belize's largest Mayan pyramids, which survived millennia of storms, rain and wind only to succumb to a construction company seeking gravel for road fill.
The head of the Belize Institute of Archaeology says the destruction was detected late last week, and only a small portion of the center of the pyramid mound was left standing, according to the Associated Press. 7Newsbelize.com, the website for TV channel 7 in the small Caribbean country, accompanied a handful of archaeologists to the site recent.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
ping
They still don’t know what’s out in the jungle there. I went there three times and spent time on construction projects in the south of Belize wa-a-a-ay out in the boondocks. The jungle is so thick you can’t see another person five feet away in places. Last time there, they had just found some new complex out in the bush.
One thing for sure, they need more roads than the single highway bisecting Belize and plenty of fill for the malarial swamps.
Oooops.
bulldozers... all by themselves... the SUV’s have allies?
CAT-9s bad, bad, bad...
Maybe the construction company can sell it as “enhanced” gravel
Never been there but my sister a world traveler was. It’s a small country having a population of about that of Iceland but with a much larger area and messy politics. One of their presidents got booted out for pulling off stuff Obama is doing now. In Belize case taking control over the only TV network the country has.
Sis reported that where she stayed in the capital stray dogs were running wild all over the place. It’s a shame it’s the only English speaking country on the mainland south of Mexico with great tourist pontential. But they don’t seem to have their act together when they allow a tourist attraction with great historical value to be destroyed.
I was there earlier this year.
Lovely people, corrupt government, same song different verse.
Once you get out of Belize City, the people basically govern themselves, they are poor but the kids are clean, well fed and loved.
I believe that particular problem has been fixed.
After more investigation, it was determined that this particular pyramid housed the original “world will end 2012 calendars.”
The Mayans should have been more generous when representatives of Brotherhood Local 214 came to call....
I suspect what really happened is similar to what happens in the US. The government tells a landowner that something on his land is now “preserved”, so for whatever reason, he cannot use his own land.
Likewise when a land developer is preparing land, and one of his crew notices some weird looking insect, his foreman says “kill it you idiot!”, and to forget they ever saw it, because some eco-nut would delay their project for a year and cost them millions because of an “endangered” bug. Maybe even get some federal judge to seize the land and put it off limits.
What makes it worse is that “here” that bug is “endangered”, but like five miles away they are all over the place as a pest. Doesn’t matter one bit to the eco-nut.
And sad to say, the same thing applies to archeology. Though people adore preserved monuments, the truth is that once the critical details are taken from them, the vast majority are just piles of rocks, of little value.
I’ve met professors who have been excavating in the Belize boondocks for 20+ years, they are still finding untouched townships which once held over 1000+ people every excavation season, and have decades of work ahead of them.
From what I was told, since Bowen died in 2010 the country has gone into a free for all as players jostle to replace the Bowen family influence.
What it used to look like:
View from the top:
What's left of it now:
Arggh, disregard the 1st aerial photo. That’s from the Nohoch Mul pyramid (Mexico). Sorry!
Second photo is of Nohoch Mul also. Sorry, gang!
Ooops.
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