The growing threat from pollution to India's prized monuments, including the Taj Mahal, has prompted the authorities to speed up action before it is too late. The Uttar Pradesh government agencies and the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) authority that the pollution control board set up in 1999 have begun reviewing projects that were held up due to litigation or a resource crunch to save the monuments from environmental threats. Read more
The murky water in Dock No.1 in Cospicua has witnessed much history over the years. Nobody ever imagined, however, that lying underneath could be the remains of an ancient Turkish wonder - the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. No one, that is, but oncologist Stephen Brincat, who came across this precious piece of information while reading an article about the excavations of the site by the British in the 19th century in the Turkish magazine Cornucopia.
It was one of the world's first, greatest cities - a place where astronomers mapped the stars millennia ago and kings created an early code of law and planted what became known as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Yet little remains of the ancient capital. The site has the aura of a theme park touched by the ambition of dictator Saddam Hussein and the opportunism of looters: Modern walkways run beside crumbling old walls, a reconstructed Greek theatre and a palace built for Saddam atop an artificial hill. Now, for the first time, global institutions led by the UN are thoroughly documenting the damage and how to fix it. A UNESCO report due out early next year will cite Saddam's construction but focus, at the Iraqi government's request, on damage done by U.S. forces from April to September 2003, and the Polish troops deployed there for more than a year afterward.
Scientists are out of this world with plans to heritage list sites on the moon and in outer space. Some of the world's top heritage scientists, amid the new space race and boom in space tourism, are working on a register of key "off-planet" sites. Yesterday marked the 38th anniversary of the first moon landing of the Apollo 11 mission.
Following reports that there has been some inclination in the Taj Mahal's minarets, a team of experts from Roorkee's Central Building Research Institute has made an on-spot study and will submit its report to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
No sooner was Machu Picchu declared a new wonder of the world on the weekend than did Peruvians worry Monday if its newfound fame could destroy it. The once-lost city of the Inca empire was already a UNESCO World Heritage site, but its inclusion Saturday in a new list of the worlds wonder could boost its visitors from 1,800 to as many as 5,000 a day, according to official estimates, prompting archaeologist Luis Lumbreras to publish an article in La Republica daily on Monday.
Greece and France hit out on Monday at the naming over the weekend of seven "new" wonders of the world after neither the Eiffel Tower nor the Acropolis made it onto the list.
"Monuments do not have to parade on a podium like in a beauty contest" - Georgios Voulgarakis, Greek Culture Minister.
A French foreign ministry spokeswoman said that France preferred the way UNESCO, the UN body for culture, chose its world heritage sites.
"France prefers the conception of UNESCO, which has included on its world heritage list 851 sites including 31 in France" - spokeswoman Pascale Andreani.
It took over 2,000 years, but the Nabataean people have finally received international praise for creating one of the most remarkable civilisations of the ancient world. Originally a nomadic people from southern Arabia, the Nabataeans arrived in what is now Jordan around the 6th century BC. Over time, they abandoned their nomadic ways and established Petra as the centre of a lucrative trade route that connected China and India to Rome and Greece through southern Arabia. Maintaining control of this trade, particularly the commerce in incense and spices, was the lifeblood of their kingdom, which reached its zenith during the 1st century BC.
Disappointment has followed the failure of Stonehenge to be voted one of the Seven New Wonders of the World. Organisers of the contest said about 100 million people across the globe cast votes by phone and internet. The winners included the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal and Rio de Janeiro's statue of Christ.