LinksUnfortunately, the destruction of architecturally historic buildings, monuments and religious temples is rampant throughout the world.
An event which received world-wide condemnation was the recent destruction
of Buddhist statues in Afghanistan by Muslim extremists in the Taliban.
This is covered in:
Tibet, occupied by China since 1950 has had most of its Buddhist temples
and monasteries levelled and the regime of Stalin destroyed most of the
religious edifices in Mongolia starting in the 1930's. In China last year
in Dinghai - the site of the first Opium War the local town officials
flattened nationally protected city walls and houses to make way for
office blocks. Local citizens tried to get a court order to stop it but
the court under pressure from the city government allowed destruction
to continue. For details of destruction in Shanghai and the possible
onset of similar activities in Hong Kong see:
An example of a successful relocation to avoid destruction is that of
the Great Temple of Abu Simbel which was threatened to be covered by
the water stored in the Aswan dam when building started in the 1960's.
The temples were dismantled and relocated in 1968 on a desert plateau,
200 metres above and about 250 metres west of their original location
by UNESCO. A good references is:
The city of Dresden in Germany was largely destroyed by Allied bombing
in the Second World War. One of its best buildings "The Church of Our Lady"
burned for two days and two nights on February 13-14, 1945. The heat
generated by the fire exploded 8 stone pillars supporting the central
dome and 5,800 tons of stone collapsed. The church is now being restored
and daily details of the progress can be accessed from:
Another recent event which shocked the world was the destruction of New Yorks
Twin Towers. The impact of the second hijacked plane into the south tower and its
collapse 45 minutes later can be viewed (file size is 450kb) at:
And for general coverage: http://www.foureyes.com/towers/ Finally my personal feeling is that when we destroy part of our heritage we are also destroying part of ourselves.
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