How do ancient buildings survive hundreds of years of natural disasters e.g. earthquakes?
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They don’t. Earthquakes are the #1 reason ancient buildings aren’t around anymore. I was looking a while back at the seven wonders of the ancient world, and earthquakes appear to be the biggest culprit in why only one of them is still around. As others have noted, the sheer massive size of the pyramids is why they are the only one left standing. The reason the Colosseum looks like it does today is because of an earthquake; nonetheless the structure was massive enough to last until the Twentieth Century (where now it would be preserved and rebuilt because of the heritage value)
No building can last thousands of years. The ones that are still around are there because they are constantly undergoing rebuilding and rebuilding over the years. If you want a building to last for thousands of years, you shouldn’t think about engineering issues but rather cultural importance. Buildings that have meanings to people are the ones that stand the test of time–an intangible factor that has nothing to do with how they’re built or what they’re made out of (c.f. the rebuilding of Notre Dame). Of course, ancient buildings were generally sturdier as others have mentioned because they were usually (over)built out of load-bearing stone.
Many buildings are actually a [Ship of Theseus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus) scenario. An example is [Byōdō-in](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/By%C5%8Dd%C5%8D-in) temple in Japan, which is constantly rebuilt. When I visited Europe, it seemed like every other cathedral in the city center was covered in scaffolding. Buildings like that don’t just survive without human intervention. Most buildings ever built are gone, and most buildings that exist today were built after World War 2.
There are some earthquake-resistant building techniques from ancient times: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220825-kath-kuni-the-himalayas-ancient-earthquake-defying-design
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