This is one of those stories that makes me cringe at the idea of such a piece of history being destroyed so carelessly. A pre-Columbian Mayan temple in Belize was bulldozed by a road construction crew on a quest for gravel for road-filler.
The Noh Mul temple was one of the country’s largest pyramids, estimated to be nearly 2,300 years old. After the destruction, only the very core of the temple remains, an epic loss for archaeological world.
“It is incredible that someone would actually have the gall to destroy this building out here,” said Dr. John Morris of the Belizean Institute of Archaeology. “There is absolutely no way that they would not know that these are Maya mounds.”
While the ruins lay on private land, under Belizean law, any pre-Hispanic ruins come under government protection. Police are investigating and possible criminal charges are to be leveled against the construction company.