July 6 (Reuters) – A peculiar granite monument that some have dubbed “America’s Stonehenge” however a conservative politician condemned as “Satanic” was torn down on Wednesday by authorities in rural Georgia hours after it was closely broken in a bombing by vandals.
Investigators from a number of regulation enforcement companies converged on the location 100 miles (161 km) east of Atlanta in search of clues to the pre-dawn explosion that blew a portion of the 42-year-old monument, referred to as the Georgia Guidestones, to items.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) later posted on its official Twitter feed a video clip of the blast caught on surveillance digicam and separate footage of a automobile dashing away from the scene.
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It mentioned the rest of the construction was intentionally demolished later within the day “for security causes,” with a photograph exhibiting the complete monument diminished to rubble. The preliminary harm was attributed to “unknown people” who “detonated an explosive machine” on the web site.
Earlier than it was vandalized, the 19-foot-tall monument consisted of 1 upright slab on the middle of 4 bigger tablets organized round it, with a big rectangular capstone positioned atop the others.
The gathering of grey monoliths was erected in 1980 in the course of a big subject close to the city of Elberton, Georgia, off Freeway 77, and was listed as a vacationer attraction by the state’s journey web site and the Elbert County Chamber of Commerce.
The slabs have been engraved with an enigmatic message in 12 languages calling for the preservation of humankind by limiting the world’s inhabitants to fewer than a half-billion folks to dwell “in perpetual steadiness with nature,” in response to official translations of the textual content.
The Guidestones additionally functioned as an astronomical calendar, organized to let daylight shine via a slim gap within the construction at midday on daily basis to light up engraved dates.
However the monument drew occasional controversy from some tying its message to far-right conspiracies or spiritual blasphemy.
Outstanding amongst them was former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Kandiss Taylor, a third-place finisher within the Might 24 Republican major, who made elimination of the monument a part of her marketing campaign platform, a stance spoofed by tv comic John Oliver.
Following information of the Guidestones’ bombing on Wednesday, Taylor advised on Twitter that the monument’s demise was an act of divine intervention.
“God is God all by Himself. He can do ANYTHING He needs to do. That features hanging down Satanic Guidestones,” she tweeted.
Taylor later launched a video insisting she would by no means assist vandalism and that “anybody who goes on personal or public property to destroy something illegally ought to be arrested.”
No regulation enforcement officers have advised that Kandiss was concerned within the Guidestones bombing.
The exact origins of the ill-fated roadside attraction stay murky. It was constructed by a neighborhood granite ending firm on the behest of a mysterious benefactor who commissioned the work below the pseudonym of Robert C. Christian.
The Elberton Granite Affiliation, which had maintained and preserved the stones, put the price of changing them at tons of of 1000’s of {dollars}, in response to native media.
Official descriptions say the monument has grow to be generally known as America’s Stonehenge. However the web site paled in age and grandeur to the unique Stonehenge, a prehistoric landmark in Wiltshire, England, believed thus far to as early as 3000 BC.
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Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Modifying by Aurora Ellis and Neil Fullick
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