Albert Einstein once said, "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." Evidence of this quote's truth is found all around us every day. Most of these acts of stupidity are actually innocent and harmless, but some result in such enormous losses that they can almost be called mistakes. The history of this world is replete with examples of such mistakes. Here are a few examples of human stupidity that have cost us many historically valuable objects and places. Read on to learn about 10 historically significant things destroyed due to human stupidity.
1. Temple of Artemis
One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Temple of Artemis, was burned by a man named Herostratus to gain notoriety for his crime. Because of his actions, the ancient Greeks forbade even the utterance of his name.
The Temple of Artemis is a Greek temple located in Ephesus, in modern-day Turkey. Also known as the "Temple of Diana," it was rebuilt three times. The first was destroyed in the 7th century BC during a flood. The second rebuilding took place around 560 BC. It is considered the first Greek temple built entirely of marble. The structure was destroyed in 356 BC by the arsonist Herostratus.
Little is known about the life of Herostratus. He may have been a man of low social standing, but he possessed a great desire for fame. To immortalize his name, he decided to set fire to this world-famous temple. Thus, on July 21, 356 BC, he set fire to the Temple of Artemis. Soon after, he was captured and, after confessing, executed. To deter those with similar intentions, the authorities of Ephesus passed a law forbidding citizens from even uttering his name.
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2. Parthenon
The Parthenon remained virtually intact until 1687, when the Venetians attacked the Ottoman ammunition depot located there. Not only were 700 cannonballs fired at the temple, but the gunpowder also ignited, destroying 28 columns and causing irreparable damage.
The Parthenon, celebrated worldwide as a symbol of wealth, intellect, and culture, was the most magnificent embodiment of Greece's Golden Age. Its construction began in 447 BC and took nine years to complete. Dedicated to the goddess Athena, the temple housed a 12-meter-tall gold and ivory statue of Athena. It also served as the city treasury. Around the sixth century AD, Greece fell to the Christian Byzantines, the Parthenon was converted into a church, and the famous statue of Athena was dismantled. In 1458, Athens was captured by the Ottoman Empire. The new ruler converted the Parthenon into a mosque.
In 1687, Venetian troops raided Athens as part of their war against the Ottoman Empire. During the war, the Ottoman Turks used the Parthenon as a gunpowder storage facility. On September 26, 1687, the Venetians bombarded the building with cannons. The western façade was struck by approximately 700 cannonballs. Due to the constant bombardment, the gunpowder stored in the Parthenon eventually ignited. The explosion knocked out 28 columns, damaged several interior spaces, and claimed the lives of approximately 300 people. (1, 2, 3)
3. The Amber Room
The Amber Room is a world-famous chamber decorated with amber panels, gold leaf, and mirrors, and containing several tons of precious stones. Once considered the eighth wonder of the world, the room was dismantled by Hitler during World War II and shipped in crates to Königsberg. However, after the Battle of Königsberg in 1945, the Amber Room was never seen again.
In 1701, Frederick, the first King of Prussia, at the urging of his wife, Sophie Charlotte, commissioned the construction of the Amber Room. It was originally intended for Charlottenburg Palace, King Frederick's residence, but was eventually installed in the Berlin City Palace. The room was decorated with amber panels, which were embellished with gold leaf and mirrors. When completed, the room contained several tons of precious stones, but the Amber Room's stay in the Berlin City Palace was short-lived. In 1716, Peter the Great visited the palace and was captivated by the unique room. Therefore, King Frederick's son gifted the room to Peter the Great. In Russia, the Amber Room was installed in the Catherine Palace.
The Amber Room, considered the "eighth wonder of the world," remained in the Catherine Palace until the German invasion during World War II. Under the guidance of two experts, German soldiers dismantled the entire room in just 36 hours and packed it into 27 crates. The crates were shipped to Königsberg, Germany, where they arrived on October 14, 1941, and were put on public display a month later. In 1943, Hitler ordered the Amber Room removed from Königsberg, but before the room could be moved, the person responsible for the civil administration fled the city. In 1944, Königsberg was subjected to massive bombing by the RAF, reducing the last known location of the Amber Room to rubble. Since then, all trace of the Amber Room has been lost. (1, 2)
4. Mayan codices
The written history of the Maya civilization, the Maya codices, were largely burned or destroyed in the 16th century by the Spanish bishop Diego de Landa, as he considered them impious, resulting in the loss of almost all knowledge of Mayan culture, religion, and language.
The Maya civilization is one of the most famous classical civilizations of Mesoamerica. It is renowned for its architecture, mathematics, calendar, art, astronomical system, and Maya hieroglyphic script, a highly developed writing system in pre-Columbian America. The Maya preserved their history through codices. These codices were foldable books written by professional scribes on Mesoamerican tree bark. The codices were named after the cities where the Maya eventually settled. They contained ritual dates, astronomical information, and many other details of their culture and society.
According to Alonso de Zoria, a Spanish royal judge, in 1540 he saw numerous Mayan codices in the highlands of Guatemala. He also mentions that these books contained the history of the Mayan civilization as it existed more than eight hundred years ago. But almost all of this information was lost due to one man, Diego de Landa. Landa was a Spanish bishop, often described by historians as cruel and fanatical. He considered Mayan idolatry to be satanic and ordered the burning of the codices and cult images. Of these archives, only four codices survive: the Dresden Codex, the Madrid Codex, the Paris Codex, and the Grolier Codex. (1, 2)
5. Recordings from the Apollo 11 mission«
NASA had a pristine version of the Apollo 11 lunar landing video, but it was erased because NASA ran out of magnetic tapes and needed to use them for other purposes. Therefore, the only recordings we have of the first lunar landing are found on damaged SSTV backups.
On July 21, 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong made history by becoming the first person to walk on the moon. He was joined 19 minutes later by astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Video footage of the lunar landing was captured by the Apollo television camera in monochrome SSTV format. On Earth, these SSTV signals were received by radio telescopes at ground stations. Since the resulting video format was incompatible with the format used for television broadcasting, it was converted. The original SSTV signal was split into two branches. One branch of the signal was sent to an RCA converter, where it was converted for live television broadcast. This conversion degraded the image quality, making it dark and murky. The other branch of the signal was sent to a 14-track analog tape recorder. Here, the raw, clean video was recorded onto a 14-inch reel of analog magnetic tape.
The lunar landing footage was stored and nearly forgotten until Stan Lebar, the leader of the team that designed and built the lunar camera, decided to convert it into higher-quality video using modern technology. His search revealed a disturbing reality. Over the years, NASA satellites produced massive amounts of data that needed to be recorded 24 hours a day. Therefore, when NASA faced a critical shortage of magnetic tapes, they reused many old tapes, erasing their contents and using them to record data produced by modern satellites. Since Lebar and his team were unable to find the original Apollo 11 tapes even after searching every possible storage location, it is believed that NASA reused them. Thus, we now have only a grainy, dark, television-quality version of the original, pristine lunar landing video. (1, 2)