2500 year old ancient Phoenician port destroyed to build skyscrapers - Polidicks

[quote]BEIRUT: An ancient Phoenician port in Beirut dating back to at least 500 B.C. was destroyed Tuesday after the culture minister gave a construction firm the green light to proceed with its project to build three skyscrapers on the site. Civil society activists and the Venus construction firm have been in a standoff for more than a year over the firm’s $500 million development project. The controversy reached a decisive turning point this week when several bulldozers demolished one of the oldest ports in the country. The Association for the Protection of the Lebanese Heritage has called for a demonstration in front of the Culture Ministry at noon Thursday to protest the demolition. While officials at Venus welcomed Wednesday Culture Minister Gaby Layyoun’s decision, civil society activists told The Daily Star they would not stop until the minister and the firm stand trial for the destruction of the archaeological treasure. Archaeologists and experts of maritime history tasked by the firm say the site’s distance from the Mediterranean shore and the nature of the findings indicate the site could have functioned neither as a port nor as ancient structures where ships were stored. But the firm’s project had been on hold since April 2011, when then-Culture Minister Salim Wardy issued ministerial decree number 25 and designated some 1,200 square meters of the land owned by Venus as an archaeological site that should not be tampered with in any way, and is considered public property according a 1933 law. The land, plot 1398, in Mina al-Hosn behind Hotel Monroe, is 7,500 square meters. The decree was made after a team from the Directorate General of Antiquities discovered two ancient dry docks that were used for shipbuilding and their maintenance. Archaeologists also discovered two large sandstones from an enormous structure that dated between the first and third centuries A.D. Mina al-Hosn, the area where the discoveries were made, is Arabic for “Port of the Fort.” But Wardy’s decree was revoked by Layyoun Tuesday. The decree signed by Layyoun denied that any of the findings of the DGA were of historical importance. “There is no evidence related to ships or any type of works related to maritime activity at the site,” Layyoun says in the decree. “The entire case involves no proof that points to the presence of a Roman or a Phoenician port and the trenches within the rocks could not have been used as dry docks for ships or their maintenance,” he adds. Welcoming Layyoun’s decision, Mohammad Kassem, managing director for Venus, told The Daily Star that his company started its work back up Tuesday after it received permission from the ministry. “Former Minister Wardy never informed our firm about the ministerial decree and his team never visited the site itself,” Kassem said. The managing director blames Wardy for the delay in construction. “He just made a decision ... but they did not provide any solid evidence that this port is a Phoenician one,” he said. “We have gained the right to continue with construction because we have documents and evidence that they [the activists] do not have,” Kassem added. He said that the land Venus owned was 8 meters above sea level, 230 meters from the shore and there were other newly constructed buildings between the property and the coast. “How come they couldn’t find anything under those buildings before they built them?” Kassem asked, in reference to Beirut Tower and the Bay Tower buildings. In response to Kassem, Wardy asked why the firm had halted construction for over a year if it was not informed about his ministry’s decision in 2011, adding that Layyoun and the firm “have committed a crime by destroying the port.” “If we had not informed them of the decree, it means they had the right to continue work ... then why did they stop?” asked Wardy. “My decision was based on a scientific report prepared by a group of archaeologists and marine experts ... they concluded the presence of dry docks dating back more than 2,500 years,” Wardy told The Daily Star. In a letter addressed to Venus, Wardy had called on the firm to make rearrangements for their project to ensure the preservation of the Phoenician port. “Block A and C did not conflict with the port, but I asked them to relocate Block B because it conflicts with the port,” Wardy added.[/quote] [url=http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Jun-28/178530-construction-firm-demolishes-phoenician-port.ashx#axzz1z660ZVqv]Source[/url] Heh, capitalism...

Heh, History. Who Needs It? :v:

That fucking sucks

This is just awful

For fuck sake don't be sad about this. Was anyone using it to ship oils and skins still? Yes, it's nice to have old things but when they get in the way it becomes akin to a type of societal hoarding mentallity. Hooray Progress!

While it's sad a piece of history is lost, we are running out of places on Earth to build, and we need to build fast. Sometimes the tough choices have to be made to ensure the betterment of people.

This is wrong

[QUOTE=Crazy Ivan;36540966]For fuck sake don't be sad about this. Was anyone using it to ship oils and skins still? Yes, it's nice to have old things but when they get in the way it becomes akin to a type of societal hoarding mentallity. Hooray Progress![/QUOTE] It's nice to have some parks and history left instead of having the entire globe covered in skys[I]crappers[/I] that are grey and boring and ugly and repetitive.

[QUOTE=Crazy Ivan;36540966]For fuck sake don't be sad about this. Was anyone using it to ship oils and skins still? Yes, it's nice to have old things but when they get in the way it becomes akin to a type of societal hoarding mentallity. Hooray Progress![/QUOTE] so then: Skyscrapers>History? If you say so.

[QUOTE=Crazy Ivan;36540966]For fuck sake don't be sad about this. Was anyone using it to ship oils and skins still? Yes, it's nice to have old things but when they get in the way it becomes akin to a type of societal hoarding mentallity. Hooray Progress![/QUOTE] My guess is the port in some third world country that can't appreciate its intellectual value and decided to destroy it. [quote]Beirut, Labanon[/quote] Yep.

[QUOTE=Loriborn;36540993]While it's sad a piece of history is lost, we are running out of places on Earth to build, and we need to build fast. Sometimes the tough choices have to be made to ensure the betterment of people.[/QUOTE] yeah i'm not sure we're quite out of land as much as to completely destroy historic landmarks to make skyscrapers

[QUOTE=Loriborn;36540993]While it's sad a piece of history is lost, we are running out of places on Earth to build, and we need to build fast. Sometimes the tough choices have to be made to ensure the betterment of people.[/QUOTE] This guys Destroy the Amazon

[QUOTE=Crazy Ivan;36540966]For fuck sake don't be sad about this. Was anyone using it to ship oils and skins still? Yes, it's nice to have old things but when they get in the way it becomes akin to a type of societal hoarding mentallity. Hooray Progress![/QUOTE] I agree, but they shouldn't have outright destroyed them. Preserving the dock, or part of it, somewhere or somehow would've been better.

[QUOTE=Crazy Ivan;36540966]For fuck sake don't be sad about this. Was anyone using it to ship oils and skins still? Yes, it's nice to have old things but when they get in the way it becomes akin to a type of societal hoarding mentallity. Hooray Progress![/QUOTE] i don't see anything in the article that would indicate the skyscrapers as progressive. sounds to me that a few rich corporations wanted cheap land to put their shit on, but at the heart of the city, so they chose to buy out the land through the bribery that is very common in arabic politics.

[QUOTE=Loriborn;36540993]While it's sad a piece of history is lost, we are running out of places on Earth to build, and we need to build fast. Sometimes the tough choices have to be made to ensure the betterment of people.[/QUOTE] You have no idea how large the planet you live on is.

Corporatism at its finest.

[QUOTE=Loriborn;36540993]While it's sad a piece of history is lost, we are running out of places on Earth to build, and we need to build fast. Sometimes the tough choices have to be made to ensure the betterment of people.[/QUOTE] [IMG]http://filesmelt.com/dl/earthmapze3.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=Loriborn;36540993]While it's sad a piece of history is lost, we are running out of places on Earth to build, and we need to build fast. Sometimes the tough choices have to be made to ensure the betterment of people.[/QUOTE] then do you think maybe that is a problem of too much population growth rather than not enough room?

[QUOTE=Sgt-NiallR;36541842][IMG]http://filesmelt.com/dl/earthmapze3.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE] yeah people who want to work and live in the city want to live in the middle of africa [editline]29th June 2012[/editline] not everywhere is ideal for living

[QUOTE=Crazy Ivan;36540966]For fuck sake don't be sad about this. Was anyone using it to ship oils and skins still? Yes, it's nice to have old things but when they get in the way it becomes akin to a type of societal hoarding mentallity. Hooray Progress![/QUOTE] Sometimes, it's nice to keep historical artifacts in the world for people to see and admire.

you'd all complain if we started making sky scrapers there anyway

[QUOTE=rampageturke 2;36541854]yeah people who want to work and live in the city want to live in the middle of africa [editline]29th June 2012[/editline] not everywhere is ideal for living[/QUOTE] Yet, there are still people who live in the Sahara. Even if the human planet was so vastly over populated that there was no where else to move to BUT the Sahara, then with modern engineering we would be able to get water and material out there to develop it.

It belongs in a museum, and if you can't put it there damnit, you BUILD ONE AROUND IT. Too bad they tore it down. They totally could have put it INSIDE the skyscrapers.

Preservation of your countries heritage and history? Lol no build more. At least when people build skyscrapers in London they alter the building plans to include the archaeology in a basement gallery or the lobby. As someone currently doing a university course on archaeology this really rustles my jimmies.

[QUOTE=Sgt-NiallR;36541842][IMG]http://filesmelt.com/dl/earthmapze3.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE] i forgot that the entire sahara desert and majority of central africa were within lebanon's domain yeah, duh, they should have just built there instead

[QUOTE=lil_n00blett;36542383]i forgot that the entire sahara desert and majority of central africa were within lebanon's domain yeah, duh, they should have just built there instead[/QUOTE] It's not like Lebanon's entire cost line has already been developed to the point where this was literally the ONLY place they could break ground on.

Destroying a Phoenician port is akin to destroying the Colosseum for the Romans, it functions as the symbol of the civilization, it's rather tragic in that sense. It's not like we come by well preserved remnants of our civilization of this size, dating 2500 years back in time, every day. Sure it is not necessary to preserve human artefacts, and maybe not in anyway pragmatic, but neither is it necessary to build in the centre of town; but I guess living central is more important than human history to some. I have a hard time understanding why destroying historical artefacts equals to "progress", to me it seems like another example of decadence brought on by how corporatism, capitalism, and in this case urbanism, works by its very nature.

[QUOTE=Loriborn;36540993]we are running out of places on Earth to build.[/QUOTE] [img]http://www.antarctica.org.nz/images/Sat%20Map1%20copy.JPG[/img]

[QUOTE=Crazy Ivan;36540966]For fuck sake don't be sad about this. Was anyone using it to ship oils and skins still? Yes, it's nice to have old things but when they get in the way it becomes akin to a type of societal hoarding mentallity. Hooray Progress![/QUOTE] Uh, sure, destroying ancient architecture to make way for office buildings and shopping centers is real progress.

It's denouncing time!