Ancient Mayan Temple Destroyed For Road Filler In Belize

A 2,300-year-old Mayan temple was destroyed by a construction company in Belize that extracted rock from the pre-Colombian temple to use as gravel for road building.

Construction workers used bulldozers and digging machines to break apart the sides of the 100 foot tall Mayan pyramid, which is reportedly part of the most important Mayan site in northern Belize. Only a small portion of the ancient temple was left standing. The temple was on privately owned land, but any pre-Colombian ruins are protected under Belizean law.  

A police investigation is underway, the BBC reported, but the incident was not the first of its kind. Belize's jungles are dotted with hundreds of Mayan ruin sites. 

"Bulldozing Maya mounds for road fill is an endemic problem in Belize," Prof Normand Hammond told the Associated Press.

John Morris of the Belizean Institute of Archaeology said the workers would have been aware of what they were doing.

"There is absolutely no way that they would not know that these are Maya mounds," he said  to local TV channel News 7. "It is incredible that someone would actually have the gall to destroy this building out here."

Jaime Awe, head of the Belize Institute of Archaeology said the act showed "ignorance and insensitivity."

"It's like being punched in the stomach, it's just so horrendous," he said, according to the Daily Mail. '"These guys knew that this was an ancient structure. It's just bloody laziness."