I think another question that needs to be asked is which ruins of America (by which I mean the United States) will be restored by future generations after our collapse (which had better hurry - Obama only has a couple years left to bring about the collapse of our country)?
The one that got me was Knossos. It seemed like almost everything was restored, with lots of interpretation. It seemed like almost nothing was genuine.
I understand preservation, and repairs make sense, but it has to be done sensitively.
The Chichen Itza pyramid is called El Castillo. I actually climbed when I was a kid and went inside, there is mini version of the pyramid and a jade jaguar inside. Now you can’t even touch it they have it all roped off.
There is a level of preservation needed and cap on tourism coming in. These area were actually religious ritual areas where many virgins and warroirs were give to the gods or people tried to pay their way into their heaven jumped into the cenotes (large water holes) The warrors played a basketball like game and the losers were beheaded and put on staffs in a courtyard.
Or you could put those old things to use…
2,300-year-old Maya pyramid bulldozed for Belize road project - Boing Boing
Disappointed that no mention of the restoration of their former function was given. (And no, a bunch of neo-hippie “druids” banging around Stonehenge on the solstice doesn’t count.)
Apparently none of these archaeologist IDIOTS watch Antiques Roadshow. Don’t they know that NATURAL PATINA IS EVERYTHING and VARNISH ONLY DIMINISHES VALUE!!! Jesus…
Yup, and last time I was there it was the same - you could go up this and many others … and down inside too. There was a chain going up the climbable side. I was sad to hear you could no longer climb up but it was an accident waiting to happen, plus it’ll be better preserved this way.
My grandfather took me all over the peninsula – if anyone wants to see ruins in more of a state of ruin, just go off the beaten track. They are everywhere, albeit less impressive in size.
Pretty sure basically every 200+ yr old church on the yucatan is built from former pyramids.
I climbed a few months before they stopped letting people climb it. Amazingly, it wasn’t the steepness that caused the stoppage, but the erosion of the steps from all those feet/shoes. At least, that was the explanation on the signage and from park staff.
Why are we overlooking the obvious question? How did primitive people with only 20th Century levels of technology move the massive stones to restore Stonehenge and other monuments? The must have had extraterrestrial help - and probably an extraterrestrial agenda as well. WHAT ARE THEY HIDING???
You forgot something:
Sigh. Folks like yourself have claim President Obama, at least pretend to respect the title, would turn the country to both a Nazi and Communist regime at the same time. It has yet to happen and if anything he is continuing to move the country in the direction your hero Dubba, you use Obama I use Dubba, set things. Get over it.
You’re totally forgetting the socialist/fascist breadlines that you were standing in in early 2009 after that Muslim/atheist/Christian from Chicago/Hawaii/Africa came to power!
And I’m apparently forgetting them too because I don’t remember that happening either…
I am impressed you understood him well enough to respond. I sure didn’t.
When I visited Chichen Itza they weren’t even allowing visitors to perform human sacrifice there anymore, let alone kick the victims’ severed heads around the ball courts. Total ripoff.
I visited Chichen Itza on the solstice, a couple of years after they discovered that the shadow of the serpent along one side of the steps was connected head to tail for a few minutes by the sunlight/shadow just once a year.
Other than that almost supernatural event, the second most vivid memory I have is of the screams of tourists climbing the interior steps. There were bare lightbulbs every ten feet or so on the ceiling of the low stair passageway leading up to the original top of the pyramid, where the jaguar sat in a large chamber. The stairway was wet from the Yucutan humidity and all of the tourist’s breath and sweat, so people gripped the walls and ceiling to avoid falling.
Because the lightbulbs were not in protective cages, a significant portion were broken by people bumping into them. Fairly regularly you would hear a scream from someone sticking their hand into a live socket where there was a broken lightbulb. It was a situation that could only exist in a minimally litigious society.
There were few signs of anybody trying to restore those lightbulbs.
People still miss the Dark & Scary Ride at the Balboa Fun Zone. 
Uhh… I never thought I would have need to point out I was joking/being sarcastic on boingboing…
Sometimes it’s necessary.
