After being damaged by a blast, a granite monument in Georgia was destroyed and demolished.
A blast early Wednesday morning reduced one of the slabs from the Georgia Guidestones into rubble.
CCTV footage captured a car leaving the scene. Authorities are investigating.
Despite being constructed in 1980, the monument was nicknamed “America’s Stonehenge”, a reference the UK’s prehistoric landmark.
The structure, which is 19 feet high (5.8m) was built east of Atlanta by a person or group using the pseudonym RC Christian.
The Georgia Guidestones, which weighed 119 tons, were unveiled to an audience of around 100 people on 22 March 1980.
A local pastor was the first to confess that the stones were made for devil worship and cult because they resemble Stonehenge.
The words “Let these guidestones to an Age of Reason” were engraved on each side of the capstone in four ancient languages: Classical Greek, Babylonian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphic.
These instructions were written in eight languages: English, Russian Mandarin Chinese, Arabic and Classical Hebrew. They also included instructions on how to rebuild society after the end of the Second Coming of Christ.
“Maintain humanity below 500,000,000 in perpetual equilibrium with nature; Guide reproduction with wisdom – improving fitness and diversity; Unite mankind with a living, new language; Rule passion-faith-tradition – and all other things with tempered reason; Let all nations rule internally resolving any external disputes in a global court; Avoid petty law and useless officials; Balance personal right with social duties; Value truth-beauty-love – seeking harmony and the infinite; Do not be -Lea room for the Earth
According to ExploreGeorgia.org, the monument is used as an “astronomical calendar”. Every day at noon, the sun shines through the narrow hole in the structure and illuminates the date on an engraving.
Shayan Sardarizadeh, BBC Monitoring
Conspiracy theories have been popularized for years around the Georgia Guidestones. Many believe that the monument is “Satanic”, and a portal to hell.
It is linked to the New World Order theory about a plot by global elites for human rule. The monument was painted red with the slogan “death the New World Order” and defaced in 2008.
Online claims that the stones contained instructions for depopulating earth have been circulated. Some have cited the stone’s inscription to support their claim: “Maintain humanity below 500,000,000 in perpetual equilibrium with nature.”
These conspiracies were given a boost by the Covid pandemic, and the global vaccine programme. Kandis Taylor (a loser in Georgia’s Republican primary) pledged to eliminate the stones as part her campaign.
Some online communities have cheered the news of the monument’s demolishment. Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist, said that he enjoyed the destruction of the monument “at an animal-level”, but added that he would prefer them to be an “evil structure” that exposes depopulation plans.
