Builders who unearthed the 500-year-old Ming Dynasty ruins of an imperial palace in the ancient Chinese capital Nanjing destroyed the site despite being ordered to stop, state media reported Tuesday. Workers on Sunday unearthed several large marble pillar bases but still failed to put down tools, officials with the Nanjing Cultural Relics Bureau were cited as saying by Xinhua news agency.
By the time they had finished, the builders had dug a huge pit 2,000 square metres (21,500 square feet) wide and three to four metres (9.9 to 13.2 feet) deep out of the palace foundations, destroying them.
The remains were believed to be part of the eastern palace of the Ming Dynasty imperial palace, which was built by Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty. They were destroyed by fire when war broke out during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Local relics protection officials had rushed to the site to stop the work after local residents tipped them off, Xinhua news agency said.
Wang Zhigao, a relics protection expert from Nanjing Museum, said he and his colleagues reached an agreement with the construction team to temporarily suspend work but the request was then ignored until police got involved.
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage said the workers faced prosecution for deliberately damaging cultural relics.
Much of China's cultural heritage has disappeared with many relics smuggled overseas. Illegal excavations are rampant while the drive for profit has seen countless ancient sites damaged or destroyed.
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