The Georgia Guidestones, a 19-foot mysterious granite monument in the Peach State, was demolished on Thursday for safety reasons, after being damaged in a blast.
An explosion at around 4 a.m. on Thursday reduced one of the stones in Elbert County to rubble. CCTV showed a silver sedan leaving the scene after the explosion, and the police are investigating.
No motive has been identified and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has said "unknown individuals" caused the vandalism.
The guide stones had a set of 10 principles engraved on them in eight different languages, including Arabic, English, Hebrew, Hindi, Russian, Spanish, Swahili and Traditional Chinese.
The principles are:
- Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
- Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
- Unite humanity with a living new language.
- Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
- Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
- Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
- Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
- Balance personal rights with social duties.
- Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
- Be not a cancer on the Earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.
The guide stones were erected on March 22, 1980, but who put them up remains a mystery, making the area one of ongoing interest for conspiracy theorists.
Despite being much newer, the Guidestones resemble the famous British monument Stonehenge and many have compared the two. Stonehenge, in southwest England, was built in the neolithic period some 5,000 years ago.
The Georgia monument was first revealed to a crowd of around 100 people. A local pastor who was in the crowd said he believed that the stones were built for cult and devil worship due to their similar appearance to Stonehenge.
The Elbert County Chamber of Commerce says on its website that the structure was funded by an anonymous "small group of loyal Americans who believe in God," who lived outside of Georgia.
Dark Clouds over Elberton, a 2015 documentary, claimed the Guidestones were designed and paid for by Herbert Hinzie Kersten, a doctor from Fort Dodge, Iowa, who was accused of being a white supremacist and a supporter of David Duke, a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
The Georgia monument drew in crowds of curious visitors, with more than 20,000 attending annually, WYFF of Greenville, South Carolina, reported, citing Christopher Kubas, executive vice president of the Elberton Granite Association.
