The eruption destroyed the Pink and White Terraces at neighbouring Lake Rotomahana, the stepped rock pools that were once touted as theeighthwonderoftheworld.
Before the Communists came to power in 1949, travellers reported an eighthwonderoftheworld: a green if dusty city, largely unaltered from the medieval plan laid out under Kublai Khan and built upon by the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912) dynasties.