Japan's historic Shuri Castle was on fire early Thursday. This became a ruined UNESCO World Heritage site.
The bright blaze did light up the night sky in Naha, the prefectural capital of the southern island of Okinawa. Firefighters battled the flames for almost 12 hours.
The fire started in the castle’s main wooden structure and quickly spread to the other buildings.
Three large halls and four other structures burned down and collapsed, a fire official said.
There were no injuries.
The castle is recognized as a cultural symbol of Okinawa’s heritage from the time of the Ryukyu Kingdom that spanned about 450 years from 1429 until 1879.
Japanese castles (城 shiro) were fortresses constructed mostly out of wood and stone. They evolved from the wooden stockades of earlier centuries. They came into their best-known form in the 16th century. Castles in Japan were mostly built to guard important or strategic sites. These are sites such as ports, river crossings or crossroads. They almost always incorporated the landscape into their defenses.
ReplyDeleteThe castles were built to last a long time. They used quite a lot of stone in their construction. However, a lot of wood was used in their construction.