11 Incredible Tourist Attractions That Were Destroyed by Man

Nowadays, the popularity of tourist attractions depends a lot on social media. About 50% of travelers said information and advertisements on the Internet influenced their travel plans. But this growing popularity is often not good for attractions, which can end up littered with graffiti.

Damage can be caused even unintentionally, as happened with cave drawings in a cave in Spain, which molded because of the carbon dioxide and water produced by the breath of visitors.

O awesome.club wants to show 11 popular attractions that have been destroyed by uncontrolled tourism and other reasons, such as agriculture and energy production.

This place became popular with tourists after the movie. The beach with Leonardo DiCaprio. Around 5,000 people visited the site every day until June 2018, when it was closed indefinitely for restoration.

In just 10 months, over 90% of the reef was destroyed. Some corals became discolored and others died. This happened due to thermal stress caused by climate change.

The famous Sete Quedas waterfalls on the border between Brazil and Paraguay were the largest waterfall in the world by volume of water, surpassing Niagara Falls (USA-Canada), Victoria Falls in Africa and its neighboring Iguazu Falls. In 1982, the site was flooded by the reservoir formed by the Itaipu hydroelectric plant. And the rocks were removed with dynamite.

The cave was closed to visitors in 2002. Large groups of tourists damaged the paintings simply by breathing and producing water vapor and carbon dioxide inside, which caused some of the drawings to become full of mold. In 2001 they built a replica of the cave and a museum nearby to let tourists see reproductions of the paintings.

This glacier was formed over 18,000 years ago and was one of the highest in South America. Since 1980, it began to melt rapidly, and in 2009 the glacier completely disappeared, due to global warming.

This 2,300-year-old Mayan pyramid was intentionally destroyed by a bulldozer in 2013 by D-Mar Construction. Limestone from the pyramid was used to pave gravel roads in a nearby town. After an investigation, the excavator driver, the foreman and two company directors were fined.

This lake completely dried up in 2016, due to climate change and the development of agriculture and mining nearby. It should be noted that this is the second disappearance of the lake. It dried up for the first time in 1994, but was later replenished by the rains.

This rock became very popular in 2015 and had to be closed due to concerns about its stability. But the closure, fines and even the presence of the police still do not stop tourists from jumping over the fence in search of a photo. The rock will remain closed until it disappears for natural reasons.

Around 1,600 square meters of coral reefs were destroyed by cruise ships in 2017 and could take decades to recover. Damage to the site, popular with divers, was estimated at approximately $18.6 million.

This rock formation was a popular tourist attraction until August 29, 2016. A group of people penetrated the fence and destroyed the natural monument because, as far as is known, a friend of these people had broken his leg there.

This famous bridge was so full of padlocks representing love that its total weight reached approximately 45 tons. The government, fearing for the state of the River Seine due to the number of thrown keys and baffled by the bridge’s possible collapse, had to remove tens of thousands of padlocks and put glass panels in place so that people could no longer leave evidence of their love stories there.

You might be surprised to learn that the Great Wall of China is on the list of attractions that may soon be destroyed. The famous tourist attraction originally created for the defense of Chinese territory, but nowadays, the amount of tourists walking on it is causing damage. In addition to this attraction, the Colosseum, the Dead Sea, the city of Venice and even Antarctica are under threat.

People leave a lot of trash, graffiti the walls, try to take home a “piece” of the attraction and pollute the environment, without thinking about the future consequences. We are not suggesting that people don’t travel; we just want everyone to be aware that we must take care of these places and respect them. And, who knows, in a few decades, there will be no more lists of destroyed tourist places.

What do you think about the impact of people on these and other attractions? Do you see any way to reduce it? Share your opinion in the comments.