Quake deals heavy blow to Nepal’s rich cultural heritage

epalese rescue personnel observe damaged buildings following an earthquake in Kathmandu on April 26, 2015. International aid groups and governments intensified efforts to get rescuers and supplies into earthquake-hit Nepal on April 26, 2015, but severed communications and landslides in the Himalayan nation posed formidable challenges to the relief effort. As the death toll surpassed 2,000, the US together with several European and Asian nations sent emergency crews to reinforce those scrambling to find survivors in the devastated capital Kathmandu and in rural areas cut off by blocked roads and patchy phone networks. AFP PHOTO

KATHMANDU (AFP) - Reduced to piles of rubble and splintered wood, Nepal’s rich cultural heritage has suffered a devastating blow from a massive earthquake that tore through the country, experts said Sunday.

The nine-storey Dharahara tower, a major tourist attraction in the city’s Durbar square with its spiral staircase of 200 steps, was reduced to just its base when the 7.8-magnitude quake struck at lunchtime on Saturday.