A marble pagoda is certainly rare and unexpected, @slowwalker.

The stone is durable enough to last but not impermeable to erosion.

It makes me think that the vestiges or traces of human history are bound to be characterized by gaps and obscured by the effects of weather - that's what makes the ruins that survive much more precious.

Perhaps our whole chronology of human civilization is flawed by the fact that nothing endures beyond a certain point and we measure our history in thousands of years when it may be much more ancient than we can measure... and that's what stimulates our sense of wonder.