““I stop in my tracks to look up, completely disrupting the flow of tourist traffic. It’s directly in front of me, in all its ancient glory. Probably one of the most immense structures I’ve ever seen. Skyscrapers don’t count--nothing modern counts. Nothing made in the last five hundred years counts against this monster, because this was built, like, two thousand years ago and it’s still here. With the grace of a zombie, I make my way closer to inspect it. The giant stone pillars are even taller than I expected. From a distance, the whole building looked like it was carved out of a giant rock, but now that I’m only ten feet away, I see innumerable faded red bricks. I had no idea we’ve been building things the same way for thousands of years. I’m so uncultured. I know nothing about everything. This trip is going to change that.””
