Mayan temples are a rich landscape for artifacts, history, and culture. Being able to study it and understand how the Mayan people constructed their temples might take a lot of time, effort, and money to accomplish. So instead of doing that, archeologists just tore it down. They got approval from the Guatemalan Instituto de Antropologia e Historia, but their means of excavating the temple did not escape backlash from Mayanists. Read more on Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)
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