On: How are Rome's monuments still standing?

[hattmall]

Big difference in the tree living vs being dead..

The desert is very harsh for life, but much more gentle on structures. Even when it does rain the arid environment evaporates it away quickly.

It's not even a close comparison, you find structures from the 1960s in the southeast that are far more deteriorated than ones from the 1860s in the southwest.

[emodendroket → hattmall]

In fact the presence of life is negatively correlated with the survival of structures. One more thing to mess them up.