I was just reading Everything Everywhere, a blog on one person’s travels around the world, and this part on the pyramids at Giza is a bit heartbreaking.

“You will notice as you approach the pyramids that it is not like what you have seen in pictures all your life. While one side of the pyramids are up against the desert, the other side is right up against a residential neighborhood. In fact right across the street from the main gate to the pyramids is a Pizza Hut. That that is literally what the Sphinx is looking at.”

When I was in junior high, I went on a trip with my spanish class to Mexico. One of the places we visited was Teotihuacan, to see the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon. They were beautiful, awe-inspiring landmarks, and it made me feel sick and sad to read that they opened a Wal-Mart right next to the site recently. That this pinnacle of an ancient civilization was lessened by proximity to a homogenized box store, its impact was lessened, it was cheapened. Here is a wonder…and here are plastic bits of nothing–on sale! Why haven’t these great treasures been preserved, been given the honor and respect they deserve?

Then, I feel a little guilty for basically admitting that I don’t want the people who live in these places to have modern things or conveniences, because it interferes with the romanticized idea I have of the ancient world. But surely there must be a happy medium? Something that will preserve these ancient sites yet not result in the Sphinx peering at a Pizza Hut?