A UNESCO Heritage site we visited on our tour just outside La Paz, Bolivia is under criticism for inaccurate/inappropriate restoration. It was a nice site to visit. But it isn't only the site that was inaccurate! For the tour, our guide was TERRIBLE!! She made-up curious stories as she took us along and meanwhile, we knew so much more (accurate) history about it than her. The stories were amusing though, and the inaccuracies and her persistence was hilarious! Some friends travelling with us, were literally rolling on the floor (ground) laughing their ass's off! I even have a hilarious photo of the incident! The tour was what we made it and hence, was a lot of fun!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Just in case you can't open the links (or it expires..) here's the second link:
By Tom Leonard in New York ~ Published: 7:00AM BST 21 Oct 2009
Ancient Bolivian pyramid 'could lose heritage status' after repairs
An ancient South American pyramid may lose its status as a UN World Heritage Site and even collapse after it was spruced up to "make it more attractive to tourists".
In a makeover of the 59-ft high Akapana pyramid in Bolivia that an expert has described as archaeologically disastrous, the structure was rebuilt with abobe instead of the original stone.
The weight of the adobe – a mixture of sand, clay, water and sticks or straw – is now making the lower decks of the edifice tilt and could even cause it to collapse, said the architect in charge of excavations.
Jose Luis Paz, an archaeologist who was appointed in June to assess damage to the site, said the state National Archaeology Union, or UNAR, was hired by the local town of Tiwanaku to make the pyramid look more like a pyramid.
One of the largest structures in South America, it looks more like a large hill than a pyramid – a consequence, say experts, of centuries of looting, quarrying of its stone and wind erosion.
Mr Paz said the town, which manages the site, wanted the pyramid to be "more attractive to tourists".
"They decided to go freehand with the design. There are no studies showing that the walls really looked like this," Mr Paz said. It should have been clear from looking at the site that the original structure was made from stone, he added.
Worse, he warned that the lower decks were slightly tilted because of the extra weight of the adobe walls, which could lead to the pyramid's collapse.
Sitting on the shores of Lake Titicaca 40 miles north of La Paz, the Bolivian capital, the pyramid once formed the spiritual core of the Tiwanaku civilisation.
The city-state, which predated the Incas, spread through Bolivia and parts of Peru, Argentina and Chile between 1500BC and 1200AD.
The pyramid is believed to date from 300AD to 700AD.
The local town may have been goaded into giving the pyramid a makeover by international guide books, which have been complaining for some years that it is a rather unimpressive sight.
The site gets thousands of visitors a year, each paying an entry fee of $10 (£6).
Pablo Groux, the Bolivian culture minister, dismissed some of the criticism and said the renovation was long overdue.
"The UNAR has restored the original form the pyramid had. If we look at pictures from five years ago, there was just a hill there," he said.
"What we can see now is something close to what the construction originally looked like."
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, or UNESCO, is due to visit Tiwanaku soon.
It could remove Akapana from its list of World Heritage Sites if it considers it has been excessively altered.
In 2000, UNESCO decided that Tiwanaku deserved to be on the list because its ruins "bear striking witness to the power of the empire that played a leading role in the development of the Andean pre-Hispanic civilisation".
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