How long can a structure or building survive, and what is the world's oldest still standing today?

Question

I spoke about this with my friends and it's got me wondering - mentioned were Stonehenge, the pyramids etc. but if a building, say a palace or temple was built 3,000 years ago on solid foundations, such as rock, and it wasn't affected by war, earthquakes etc, would it still exist today. The cathedral where I study is nearly a thousand years old and is in pretty good shape. And why do some ancient buildings and cities sink into the ground, only to be rediscovered by archaeologists centuries after, whereas some buildings, like the pyramids, and some cities, such as, Jericho, never disappeared. A lot of questions, can anyone help?

Answer 1

The best known and possibly oldest man-made structures on Earth are probably the pyramids of Egypt.  Stonehenge is of a similar date/era - and there are other older standing stones here in UK, Ireland and Bitanny etc.

The oldest house found so far is this one. . . .

InfoUkes: Ukrainian History -- Ancient Inventions of UkraineThe oldest house in the world is this 15,000 year old one made of mammoth bones found at Mezhirich near Kiev in Ukraine. It was probably covered with mammoth ...

http://www.infoukes.com/history/inventio...

Answer 2

They built things better in the old days. The pyramids and the sphinx are thousands of years old. There are ruins in south america which are even older.

Answer 3

It actually depends entirely of what they are constructed from. If your hypothetical palace were built of stone and not affected by war and was in an area of little or no rain, then it might still be standing. However, the older civilisations (Sumerian, for example) often built using mud bricks ('adobe') which tend to crumble back to the constituent dirt. That is why many cities of the ancient Middle East are just 'tells' or heaps of dirt.

Remember, the pyramids have deteriorated over the years - originally the largest pyramid at Giza, that of Khufu, was covered in gleaming white stone which has now totally disappeared. Now whether that is due to merely the passage of time, or whether the citizens of Cairo saw it as a convenient 'quarry' for building materials, I know not. Remember, buildings once left empty will often be used as a convenient source of stone, particularly if a period of relative unrest follows a period of civilisation - as happened with many of the Roman buildings of England. Stonehenge has fallen about a bit since it appeared in it's final form. Many of the cross peices of the trilithions have fallen - and this in a country where there are no earthquakes.

The worst enemy of a building is, however and undoubtably, the weather, particularly in areas where there are alternate hot, or warm, and cold seasons. Rains penetrates in he summer, remains in the fabric and freezes in the winter. Over the years this causes the structure slowly to crumble for, as we know, water expands when frozen. This action causes brickwork to 'spall', or break away in layers. Once the structure begins to break down a little, its integrity becomes compromised more and more, more rain gets in, more ice forms, more quickly the building starts to break up. How long modern buildings would last if unoccupied and cared for is an interesting oint. many are made using steel rods. Thise might break down more speedily than the surrounding concrete and in fact cause the concrete to break away.

Another contributory factor is vegetation. Birds perch, drop seeds of trees and plants, These germinate, the roots penetrate and grow and slowly, over the years, begoin to split the building apart. There are many ruins in the UK where you can see this.

The reason your cathedral has lasted is because it has been continually occupied and cared for. I would suspect it employs a surveyor, masons and other craftsmen to continually report on the need for and make repairs. I also bet that it is constantly making a request for donations to keep the fabric sound.

Finally, you refer to Jericho. Remember, this is not the city of Joshua. Some ancient Middle Eastern cities have been built and rebuilt over the cebnturies, each age building on top of the last. This even happens in England. For example, the level of Roman York, or Eboracum, is about 10 feet below the modern city.

Interesting question, one of the best on this board for a long time. Makes such a change from WWI and WW2, Hitler &etc!!

Answer 4

Check out the link below.

Answer 5

There must be some structures standing somewhere which pre-date written records, so how can we date them?  Your question has got me thinking down opposite directions.  What was the SHORTEST-LIFE building ever erected?

Answer 6

I believe the Pantheon in Rome is the oldest building in continuous use, and that is 2000 years old.

Incidentally, the Eiffel Tower was built in 1887, for the Paris Exposition.

Answer 7

of course it depends on what it is made out of. teflon generally last pretty long so i'd give that a go. the Eiffel tower is the longest lasting monument for sure. It was discovered a long time ago before the french invaded paris and cannot be accurately dated because it's so old.

Answer 8

i know they are places like 3000 year plus old in Jerusalem that have stood up to the test of time and the weathers and come through the wars man has felt it needed to have

interesting question

regards x kitti x

Answer 9

Its pretty simple actually... its all LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.  Now the original architectures took that into account but there were things they could not have predicted that have made the locations better.  Egypt with the pyramids for example does not have many nuclear wars lol nor do they have earthquakes to worry about.  Also, there has been a lot of human preservation throughout the years.  If humans were to suddenly leave (National Geographic did a thing on it) it would take nearly 1000 years to completely get rid of everything we have done.

Answer 10

the great wall of china (certain parts of it do) predates the pyramids by a couple of thousand years. so that is the world oldest standing structure. and is actually in very good condition to.