eli5: Why were some ancient cities like Palmyra and Machu Picchu left to ruin and fall apart over hundreds of years instead of being repopulated?
In: 1677
Big and complex civilizations tend to fill up with beurocracies and other non ‘domestic product’ industries. When the society collapses, either from another military coming in and taking over, or environmental problems (which often causes the former to be more likely) there’s nothing there for population in the capitol to do.
Rome was like that for centuries after. At one point there were only some 20-30 thousand inhabitants were once lived a half million. They diverted a bunch of rivers to keep water constantly flowing through most homes…. Imagine if every house in town left their tap on 24/7 (mostly it was apartment buildings with a fountain) private mansions and bathhouses.
They also had huge fires going 24/7 to heat all those bathhouses and buildings. So they also deforested the land.
Rome had most of their water supply disrupted, even the government left town to other towns.
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