Featured Image Credit: Youyu County Police/Aaron Geddes Photography
Topics: News, World News, China
Callum Jones
Topics: News, World News, China
One of the most iconic landmarks on the entire globe is now looking rather different thanks to people who were looking for a shortcut.
When you think of some of the most well known landmarks across the world, you think of the longevity of said landmarks and how, apart from a few changes here and there, they always look the same.
Of course, these historic buildings can become damaged over the years, so need a bit of restoration to get back to how they did in their glory days.
Unfortunately, for the Great Wall of China it has been severely damaged by construction workers in the central Shanxi province.
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The workers are said to have dug a 'big gap' in an already existing - albeit smaller - gap, wide enough to fit their excavator through and to create a shortcut for themselves as they return to and from the site.
Police have arrested two people who are suspected of creating the shortcut to make life easier for their construction work.
The pair - a 38-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman - have been detained while the case is under further investigation.
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The two construction workers were working near the damaged area, that being the 32nd Great Wall.
Police in China's northwest Youyu County have said they were alerted to the 'severely damaged' part of the Great Wall of China on 24 August.
The 32nd Great Wall, the area greatly affected, has a deep history dating back to the Ming Dynasty.
The last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people for almost 300 years until the mid-1640s.
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A police statement regarding the large gap in the Great Wall of China read: "Excavators were used to excavate the original gap of the ancient Great Wall into a large gap, so that the excavator could pass through the gap, which caused irreversible damage to the integrity of the Ming Great Wall and the safety of cultural relics."
The Great Wall of China is a listed UNESCO World Heritage site and is certainly regarded as one of the most impressive pieces of engineering from humans.
It is also categorised as a historical and cultural site, which is protected to the greatest degree at the provincial level.
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However, the world's most famous wall has somewhat demised in recent years - something that has certainly happened to a lot of famous landmarks over the years.
According to the AFP news agency, around 30 percent of China's Great Wall has disappeared in recent years due to climate conditions and reckless human activities.