Summary
A German tourist was arrested and attacked after climbing the Temple of Kukulcan at Chichen Itza, Mexico, during the spring equinox.
Video footage shows locals shouting insults and physically confronting the man as National Guard personnel detained him.
The temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, is off-limits to climbers due to preservation laws and safety concerns.
Violators face fines up to $16,000 and possible prison time.
The incident occurred amid a crowd of 8,000–9,000 visitors.
Yeah, I’m not an archaeologist either.
I’ve been to a few places where attempts to repair or actively preserve monuments have been made, it just never seems to go well.
We don’t have skilled artisans of the techniques used, nor the workforce. Operating on a budget is kind of antithetical to building or maintaining monuments like this.
I was watching something about the NESS of brodgar recently. A fascinating Palaeolithic site completely buried. Excavations have been ongoing for several years, but now they’re just going to re-bury the whole site so as to minimise any disruption. Most of the site has not yet been excavated. The thinking is, if you excavate it in 20 years time our tech will have advanced and more will be learned.
I’m just saying that steps taken to actively preserve something need to be very carefully considered and in almost all cases the solution is simply to not touch it.