Edit- After reading most of the comments the general consensus is listed below:
1. The unique composite matrix of the concrete used gives it a self-healing property. When cracks form in the concrete, it will naturally seal them.
2. The Pantheon was a very significant structure which led to meticulous maintenance and restorations
3. The Romans didn’t have modern engineering. So they didn’t know exactly how strong they’d have to build the Pantheon to make it last. Their solution was to overbuild the hell out of it.
4. Survivorship bias. There were thousands of buildings constructed by the Romans but very few remain which are the ones we marvel at.
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In: 564
Do you peeps mean the Parthenon?
There are a lot of reasons for this exact situation but it’s important to remember that we can make things last longer, it’s just that one thing(building or something else) that lasts a long time is worse for gdp than many of those things being sold
I used to wonder why ruins didn’t have lots of stone lying around. Like, the building fell down, where’s the rest of it? Turns out most ruins are ruins because people chipped away the stone to use as building materials. Not because they fell down.
The Colosseum, for example, only still exists because the Popes saw it was being chiselled away and forbade anyone to do that.
Short of a massive earthquake, or pillaging, stone structures are going to stay standing for thousands of years. The aqueduct at Nimes is in great shape, probably because no one has ever wanted to build anything close enough to it to make it worth taking apart.
Over engineering and EXTREME income inequality.
Other people hit the over engineering point, but income inequality allowed it to happen.
When I took a few classes about the ancient world this was the one thing that really interested me as it really was insane.
I like to imagine the inequality as if we lived in a world where billionaires and millionaires still existed, but everyone else was either living on a dollar a day or was a slave. This was reality in the ancient world. The income inequality was almost unimaginable. Like there is more nuance than this but that sort of idea is roughly how unequal if was. There was the mega rich and the poor, that’s it. And a few just super rich mixed in. Also once there was an emperor they were worth more than almost everyone else in the empire combined.
Being this rich they decided to just spend money on some fun projects and so whenever they built something they could spend a ton of money on it. This allowed their over engineering to take place! Also since they were super rich they just kinda had a ton of money to spend on fun projects and make them look cool.
Edit: Oh I forgot the middle class: the legions of course
The Pantheon was one of the most, if not the most important temple in ancient Rome. After Rome fell, it then became a church in the 7th century, again a pretty important one. It has been maintained and restored constantly since it was built. Thats why its still standing.
Meanwhile, if you go visit Rome today, you will find a huge amount of ancient roman ruins that were built before and after the Pantheon. But 99% of them are just that: ruins. A wall there, a pillar here, some small piece of mosaic there…
The reason the Pantheon survived and the other buildings didn’t was because it was maintained. And the reason 150 year old buildings today crumble is because they are not maintained. The ones that are can easily survive for hundreds and thousands of years. As a matter of fact, pretty much every city centre in Europe has buildings that are several hundred years old, and are in no way crumbling. Shit, the oldest church in my municipality was built in the 14th century and its still used today. We used to have band practice in a building that is first mentioned in 1320.
So yeah. The only reason 150 year old buildings are collapsing is cause they arent taken care of.
To add to what everyone else has said, there’s also what we call survivorship bias. The ~~Greeks~~ [Romans] built many buildings around the same time as the Pantheon, but very few remain. Those that do remain are the ones that were built to last and have received maintenance. The ones that weren’t are no longer here for you to talk about.
Modern buildings can also last a long time if they are well built and have regular maintenance. There are plenty of buildings that are 150 years old and are currently in good shape.
Fun fact, the Parthenon was used as a gunpowder warehouse during the 17th century and it was blown up during a siege. Without that incident it would probably be in a much better condition now.
*Edit:* Oops, I misread “Parthenon” instead of “Pantheon”…
A lot of concrete issues now are from the steel reinforcement.
The steel makes it stronger, so you can use less concrete, thinner walls etc.
Damp getting into the concrete makes the steel rust, and the expansion of iron into rust can exert massive forces and blow stuff apart. Roman stuff was done before steel reinforcement, so doesn’t have to contend with that, it was just made way thicker, heavier and stronger instead.
As one of my old engineering professors liked to say—“Anyone can design a bridge that doesn’t fall down. It takes an engineer to build a bridge that BARELY doesn’t fall down.”
The Greeks and Romans over-engineered. They built buildings that lasted 2,000 years longer than the clientele they were supposed to serve.
We could build structures that last that long today, with ease. We choose not to spend exorbitant money and time on creating something that might last 1000% longer than the desired design life.
To add to other people’s answers, one thing to note is that Pantheon was a building of special significance, which means it got special attention. There are thousands of structures from that have crumbled a long time ago.
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