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chton t1_je4gucc wrote

Reply to comment by PickledSpace56 in eli5 why ancient historical buildings haven’t been kept up? Why are buildings like the Parthenon and the Colosseum in such disrepair? Greece and Rome/Italy have existed the entire time? by PickledSpace56

Adding on to other answers, they do restore them somewhat. A lot of Greek temples and other structures look like ruins but are actually already partly restored, columns re-erected, parts replaced. The intent is to restore it enough to give an impression of what it would have looked like, without straight up guessing or causing damage to the parts that are there.

We COULD restore them with reasonable guesses, but they'll still only be guesses. Better to restore to a point we know, and let the mind do the work.

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ChicagoBeerGuyMark t1_je5faid wrote

Much of the restoration would be to preserve things as they exist now, and to keep them from decaying further and falling in on tourists.

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chton t1_je94fzf wrote

Not just that, they also rebuild parts that have fallen over or broken, even if it wasn't broken in our lifetimes. If they can clearly identify where a certain part belongs, they will put it back there.

So it's not just preservation, there is actual reconstruction going on too.

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