why do so many ancient ruins end up underground?

Question

How do they end up underground? Does the earth "swallow" them after several millenia?

Answer 1

Soil or dirt that covers buildings (and the dinosaurs) is the broken down bits of rock (either chemically or physically) or erosion of rocks that form our mountains and some hills. These broken down rocks will seek the lowest point, that is, they will move downhill and fill in valleys. If there is a building in the valley, over thousands of years, or in the case of dinosaurs, millions of years, they will become buried. In the case of ancient ruins in places like Egypt, it is the movement of sand by wind and water that has buried the buildings.

I hope this answers your question.

Answer 2

Well yeah, basically. Once a place is abandon is at the mercy of the elements. Rain, dust, sediment starts to accumulate, things start to fall apart. Wood starts to rot away. If the ruins are in a jungle or forest, the forest will reclaim the site. Volcanoes are a factor too. Once sediments accumulates it will continue and continue. In the end the ruins are underground.

Answer 3

Try assuming that an equal number of ruins get left above ground and below ground. The ones above ground will erode and dissappear, only the ones below ground will survive for us to find, except in really dry places like Egypt.

Answer 4

the earth is constantly changing... the continents move a couple centimeters every year, in some parts of the world, sand covers ancient ruins...

Answer 5

they're ruins...people build new things and leave them alone, then the earth has a big ole storm and underground it goes

Answer 6

my guess is that they get buried over time.