eli5 why ancient historical buildings haven’t been kept up? Why are buildings like the Parthenon and the Colosseum in such disrepair? Greece and Rome/Italy have existed the entire time?
In: 508
The Greek and Roman empires most certainly have not existed the entire time, and you’re talking about extremely long timelines. Even if there was a sitting Roman emperor for the past 2500 years and the entire period had not seen a single invasion succeed, you’re talking about a maximum 50 year reign for each emperor. That’s 50 lifetimes. Now consider that many rulers during that period only lasted a few *months* and you might start to see the problem.
Try to find a building in New York City that’s older than 100 years. Most of them just get torn down for being old and decrepit, and that’s with our current engineering technology, using machines and materials that could never have existed in ancient times. Throw in regular earthquakes and other natural disasters that cause further damage.
Thats pretty much what happened to the Roman Colluseum. Several political leaders considered it a ruin worth only it’s scrap materials, and used that stone for other building projects to save money. It certainly wasn’t *usable* for its original purpose even 1500 years ago.
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