When I was a young and callow fellow, I sometimes wondered how it was that the Seven Wonders of the World … or places like imparial Rome … or Athens … or the Temple of Solomon … how places like those were desecrated and destroyed by invaders, by post-invasion locals, by (literal and metaphorical) Visigoths. Why would someone do such a thing?
I don't understand the why, but between ISIL, and the Taliban, and the "Cossacks of St Petersburg," and taggers and vandals around the world … I've certainly come to understand how it happens.
Human-powered entropy always seems to prevail.
Cossacks of Saint Petersburg destroyed “satanic” bas relief
In Russia, a religious group called the Cossacks of Saint Petersburg tore down this excellent century-old bas relief of Mephistopheles, claiming it promoted the “open worship of Satan.”
It is currently the case that many churches in Ireland have weird outbuildings built up against them, to cover up shee-lah-na-gigs inscribed or carved into the walls.
+John Bump That's … fascinating. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheela_na_gig).
Sure is. It's one reason I started following +Sheila Nagig, in fact, although I found out about it from a pj harvey song.
Believe it or not, it was the PJ Harvey song with me too. Then I did some research on where it came from and I was so delighted that I kept it.
Apparently some medieval caliph decided that the Pyramids were idolatrous, and set his army the task of destroying them. Decades later, they'd made a fairly small dent in Menkauré's tomb, and gave up.
The moral? You want something built to last? Call in the Old Kingdom.