Fans Take To Twitter To Mourn Loss Of Malta’s Azure Window

Fans of Malta’s 92-foot-high natural arch, the Azure Window in Gozo, are mourning its loss on social media. The iconic rock formation juts off Gozo Island; its image is familiar to thousands of travelers as it is printed on millions of postcards and travel brochures. On Twitter, Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat called the news “heartbreaking.”

“Reports commissioned over the years indicated that this landmark would be hard hit by unavoidable natural corrosion,” he wrote on Twitter. “That sad day has arrived.” Game of Thrones fans might recognize it as the wedding backdrop of Daenerys Targaryen and Khal Drogo in the show’s first episode. Pieces of the structure had been collapsing since the 1980s and this time succumbed to a raging sea beneath its window. The Arch was on a tentative list of nominations as a UNESCO Heritage site.

Now only the photos remain as testimony to this once majestic icon.