It is nicknamed the “American Stonehenge”. Located in the State of Georgia, this strange granite monument engraved with esoteric inscriptions in twelve languages was the target of an explosion on Wednesday 6 July. US state authorities were looking for the perpetrators on Thursday.
Named the “Georgia Guidestones”, these six blocks of stone were raised in 1980 in this rural region of the southern United States, at the request of an anonymous sponsor and in enigmatic circumstances. The monument has since attracted many tourists and curious people. But he had also become the target of conspiracy theories. Some Christians even considered the site “satanic”.
On the stone, inscriptions calling for “seeking harmony with infinity” or “uniting humanity with a new living language” rubbed shoulders with others inviting in particular to “keep humanity below 500,000,000 individuals, in permanent balance with nature”.
“Unknown individuals set off an explosive”
On the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, “unknown individuals set off an explosive”said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), in charge of the investigations, on Twitter.
CCTV footage released by authorities shows the granite boulders partially exploding in the bluish light of car headlights. No one was hurt. Investigators later found that the explosion had destroyed “a large part of the structure”which was finally completely pulled down “for security reasons”, the agency said, posting images of a vehicle leaving the site.
An “evil building”
Located in the middle of the fields, the monument was highlighted by the state tourist office, which explained on its website that the six-meter-high monument was “also an astronomical calendar”. It was located near the small town of Elberton, which refers to itself as “the granite capital of the world”. Kandiss Taylor, an unsuccessful Republican primary candidate for Georgia governor in May, welcomed the destruction of this “satanic” monument.
Alex Jones, a far-right conspiratorial figure who had repeatedly denounced the existence of this “evil building”, nevertheless regretted its destruction on Wednesday, saying that his presence was useful in proving the existence of a plot to “limit the world’s population”.
