WORLD / AMERICAS
Explosion rocks Georgia Guidestones, dubbed ‘America’s Stonehenge’
Published: Jul 07, 2022 08:48 PM
A peculiar granite monument that some have dubbed "America's Stonehenge" but a conservative politician condemned as "Satanic" was torn down on Wednesday by authorities in rural Georgia hours after it was heavily damaged in a bombing by vandals.

Investigators from several law enforcement agencies converged on the site 100 miles (161 kilometers) east of Atlanta seeking clues to the pre-dawn explosion that blew a portion of the 42-year-old monument, called the Georgia Guidestones, to pieces.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation later posted on its official Twitter feed a video clip of the blast caught on surveillance camera and separate footage of a car speeding away from the scene.

It said the remainder of the structure was deliberately demolished later in the day "for safety reasons," with a photo showing the entire monument reduced to rubble. The initial damage was attributed to "unknown individuals" who "detonated an explosive device" at the site.

Before it was vandalized, the 19-foot-tall monument consisted of one upright slab at the center of four larger tablets arranged around it, with a large rectangular capstone placed atop the others.

The collection of gray monoliths was erected in 1980 in the middle of a large field near the town of Elberton, Georgia, and was listed as a tourist attraction by the state's travel site and the Elbert County Chamber of Commerce.

The Guidestones also functioned as an astronomical calendar, arranged to let sunlight shine through a narrow hole in the structure at noon every day to illuminate engraved dates.

But the monument drew occasional controversy from some tying its message to far-right conspiracies or religious blasphemy.

Prominent among them was former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Kandiss Taylor, a third-place finisher in the May 24 Republican primary, who made removal of the monument part of her campaign platform, a stance spoofed by television comedian John Oliver.