UNESCO has warned British authorities that the Stonehenge megalithic structure could lose its World Heritage status. The reason for this is the construction of a car tunnel next to it, according to the Guardian newspaper.
The organization noted that despite the status of the monument, the British government continues to use this argument, and stressed that increasing the length of the tunnel is not justified due to financial costs.
UNESCO notes that in 2022 Stonehenge will be declared critically endangered. The stone structure will cease to be a World Heritage Site if the tunnel project is not stopped.
Britain still has time to view the tunnel that passes by the monument. A British court is currently considering a complaint by activists challenging the legality of the construction.
Earlier, another British site – Liverpool, a city of sailors and traders, was excluded from the World Heritage List. This was due to a large-scale reconstruction of the city’s port, which violated the authenticity and integrity of the facility.
Stonehenge is a mysterious stone structure located in Wiltshire. It is one of the most famous archeological sites in the world. For its construction, which began around 2600 BC, large boulders were used, and blue stones were brought from afar from the diabase, which is a fairly hard volcanic rock.