The famous Shiite Askariyah shrine (Golden Mosque) in Iraq has been targeted and destroyed but by whom remains unclear at this stage. Regardless of the intentions of those responsible, one dramatic (and historically consistent) point cuts through the hysteria and mayhem. That of the importance (or otherwise) of sites that are deemed sacred or holy and the 'location' of this attribution in human consciousness and/or human societies/groups. Social history records naturally occurring phenomena, rocks, rivers etc; structures built by men, temples, obelisks etc; cyclic astronomical phenomena, eclipses, comets etc, all of which have been attributed by humans with special significance at one time or another, whereas none of the produced or naturally occurring phenomenon are ‘holy’ or ‘sacred’.