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There he still stood: The Darwin Arch has collapsed (archive image)
Photo: Franco Banfi / imago images / Nature Picture Library
It rose several meters and was a real eye-catcher.
But now the Darwin Arch is history.
As the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment announced on Monday evening, the famous rock formation off the Galápagos Islands collapsed as a result of natural erosion.
The upper part of the arch broke off and fell into the sea, it was said.
What remained were the two free-standing rock pillars of the formation.
The Darwin Arch is less than a kilometer from Darwin, the northernmost island of the Galápagos Archipelago.
It is particularly popular with divers: sharks and other animals can be seen in the region.
According to the Ministry of Environment, the rock formation once belonged to Darwin Island.
It is named after the British naturalist Charles Darwin, who visited the Galápagos Islands in 1835 and later developed the theory of evolution based on the observations made there.
The Galápagos Islands are a Unesco World Heritage Site.
The protected archipelago is located about a thousand kilometers off the coast of Ecuador.
ptz / dpa / AFP