Ants Topple Corinthian Pillar at the Acropolis | Destruction

At the foot of the Acropolis at Athens there stand a few beautiful Corinthian pillars. These are all that remain of the once-famous Temple of Olympian Zeus. The Athenians regard these pillars with the utmost veneration, and everything has been done to preserve them. To their great pain and regret, however, they awoke one morning to find one of these matchless pillars prostrate upon the ground, and the visitor can still see its scattered and broken drums and examine the beauty and finish of their workmanship. As no storm had shaken them during the night, the collapse of the pillar seemed inexplicable until it was found that a colony of ants, having found a small crevice where one of the drums of the column joined the other, had forced an entrance and had gradually eaten away the cement, so effecting at last its ruin. (James Burns -Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations).