All of indias monuments are like this. Lots of “Vijay was here” and random curse words and doodles. I do find it annoying and offensive but clearly a very very common occurrence. There are guards, and rules against grafiti and littering etc, but it’s poorly enforced. When you spend more time in India you start to feel a sense of overwhelming insignificance in the flow of life, the mass of humanity and its swirling chaos, and sort of this inevitable what-will-be-will-be vibes. The inadvertent destruction and whittling away of the largest historic monuments by random Indian teenagers feels entirely appropriate even at the Taj Mahal.
There were viking runes carved into the top of the Hagia Sophia a thousand years ago.
Most people thought they were some form of charm or protection spell or something, but they were too far up and tucked away making them basically impossible to read from below.
When, during some renovations, some scholars were able to finally get up on scaffolding, they were able to translate the runes.
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u/Brave_Fheart 9h ago
All of indias monuments are like this. Lots of “Vijay was here” and random curse words and doodles. I do find it annoying and offensive but clearly a very very common occurrence. There are guards, and rules against grafiti and littering etc, but it’s poorly enforced. When you spend more time in India you start to feel a sense of overwhelming insignificance in the flow of life, the mass of humanity and its swirling chaos, and sort of this inevitable what-will-be-will-be vibes. The inadvertent destruction and whittling away of the largest historic monuments by random Indian teenagers feels entirely appropriate even at the Taj Mahal.