To those from the Western hemisphere, it’s always fascinating to hear that some homes and businesses from the times of the Greek philosophers still have inhabitants, and then you remember that the Western hemisphere is itself not without its own examples, for example some Mexican villages still have temples from the times of the Mayans.
Both where I’m from and where I live in western Europe are the oldest buildings 14th-century churches.
I come from England but now I live in Western Canada. The oldest building is apparently a little wooden schoolhouse from the mid-1840s.
The likely oldest standing building in Canada is from 1637, a Jesuit mission house.
Mo’okini Heiau on the Island of Hawaii. 13th or 14th century.
One of the churches still has some original buildings from around 1740. Old for the us, not so old for Europe.
That would be a cabin that dates to the mid-1800s now preserved as a museum.
In southern Spain you can’t dig without hitting some stone age stuff. My town was a known stop for travellers before the Romans took over because of fresh water wells. Eventually a roman road was built about two millenia ago, and still ride on it with my bike for some routes.
No old buildings remain, this was a roadside village and stuff was made cheap and not meant to last, but there is a funeral arrangement from 600 BC that was unearthed and sent to the national museum. More info
This lighthouse is the oldest building in my city (Hamburg, Germany). It was completed 714 years ago. I actually had to look it up, I was kind of expecting the oldest building to be older than that.
Where I live, homes were still built of mud, bamboo and straw 40 years ago, so not much has survived. The oldest stuff around are the ruins of the cane sugar refinery, and that was built in just 1856. So no old stuff really
Slovakia? /s
Mayotte, indian ocean
Random Austrian town with a couple hundred inhabitants, our Church is about 900 years old. So glad it didn’t get bombed, lots of churches were destroyed through English bombs in ww2 since civilians were seeking shelter there (in response to Germany bombing English cities, also killing lots of civilians there).
When I lived in Germany for a couple years, I was surprised to learn that the large church in the center on my village was about 1,000 years old. This one building has been standing longer than America has been a country. Over 4x as long, too! European culture amazes me because there’s such a lengthy history, and so many things are much older than I’d imagine. American history is so short in comparison, and we’re more likely to tear down and build new and cheap than create a solid structure that will last for hundreds of years.
Nearly 1,000 years old: Christ Church Cathedral, built in 1030 (Dublin)
Its very hard to find anything in the lower 48 and Canada (Your right, Mexico has a lot more preserved sites) that are older that 400 years old. I was recently out in southern Utah and there are petroglyphs around Moab, some depicting horses which dates them to no earlier than the mid-1600s. Others are believed to be significantly older.
Meaning Ive seen something in the US that is older than your mum. /s
Over 700 years. A tower originally built in 1310. The island it’s on is an exclave that is technically part of Hamburg.
A church built in the 9th century, still in use today. Underground: Walls from the Roman empire, 2000 years or older. Dig deeper and you’ll find remnants of the stone age. Germany.
Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem, a pub which claims to be from 1189.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_Olde_Trip_to_Jerusalem?wprov=sfti1#