looters

A 2000-year-old historic site has been destroyed in Sudan by illegal treasure hunters using construction-sized excavators to search for buried gold. In Sudan many of the country’s archaeological sites are under threat from illegal gold diggers and looting which has become a major threat to the nation’s heritage. The important archaeological site at Jabal Maragha, in the Sahara Desert in the East of Sudan, was virtually destroyed by looters looking for gold. It is located some 170 miles (270 km) north of the Sudanese capital Khartoum. As in an increasing number of other looting incidents, the criminals used mechanical equipment and even diggers. The BBC reports that “the Jabal Maragha site, which dates from the Meroitic period between 350 BC