Stolen tombstones in Crete walkway reveal names
ATHENS (Reuters) - When the names of the dead started appearing on a pedestrian walkway in the Cretan capital Herakleion, city officials were shocked to discover that stolen marble tombstones had been used in its construction.
"This small pedestrian walkway in the city ... was created about 20 years ago, but until now we did not know this material had been used," Herakleion deputy mayor Konstantinos Mamoulakis told state television on Thursday.
Cretans realised the white slabs of marble were tombstones only when the tread of many feet wore away the dirt on the slabs and revealed the names of the dead, he said.
"We found out that some names had started to appear so this week we immediately started replacing the stones," he said.
It was not clear who had ordered the use of the tombstones -- not the first time marble gravestones have been removed illegally from crowded Greek cemeteries and recycled.
(Writing by Karolos Grohmann, Editing by Tim Pearce))
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ATHENS (Reuters) - When the names of the dead started appearing on a pedestrian walkway in the Cretan capital Herakleion, city officials were shocked to discover that stolen marble tombstones had been used in its construction.
"This small pedestrian walkway in the city ... was created about 20 years ago, but until now we did not know this material had been used," Herakleion deputy mayor Konstantinos Mamoulakis told state television on Thursday.
Cretans realised the white slabs of marble were tombstones only when the tread of many feet wore away the dirt on the slabs and revealed the names of the dead, he said.
"We found out that some names had started to appear so this week we immediately started replacing the stones," he said.
It was not clear who had ordered the use of the tombstones -- not the first time marble gravestones have been removed illegally from crowded Greek cemeteries and recycled.
(Writing by Karolos Grohmann, Editing by Tim Pearce))
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