# Oldest building in continious use **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 24, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-building-in-continious-use/610502 "2012-01-24T15:07:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-building-in-continious-use/610502/41 "2012-02-07T23:14:13Z")
The funeral pyre in Varanasi (India) has reportedly been burning in the same place (and tended by the same family) for over 5000 years. It is housed in the courtyard of a building, altho I don’t know that the building has a “name”. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-building-in-continious-use/610502/42 "2012-02-09T06:51:17Z")
Funeral pyre is not a building. So it seems a couple of buildings from Pax Romana it is then. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-building-in-continious-use/610502/43 "2012-02-09T12:51:04Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Funeral pyre is not a building. Still, it should at least get an honorable mention or something. A 5000-year-old fire is pretty impressive. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-building-in-continious-use/610502/44 "2012-02-09T14:18:21Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > The funeral pyre in Varanasi (India) has reportedly been burning in the same place (and tended by the same family) for over 5000 years. It is housed in the courtyard of a building, altho I don’t know that the building has a “name”. There is not one pyre, there is many many burning Ghats along the banks of the Gange’s that are very old, but I suspect the actual buildings have been razed and rebuilt many times. Varanasi burning Ghats may very well be the winner for “place continuously used longest for religious rituals by one ongoing religion”. Which would be another very interesting question but not the one the OP is asking. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-building-in-continious-use/610502/45 "2012-02-09T14:26:19Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Please note, he is not kidding. > > I know I specified the Great Wall as being excluded, but it got me thinking, its not all fortifications is it? There have to be some large buildings (barracks, command posts, castles) along it. Maybe they could have still be in use until recently. Also,there are several Roman era forts in Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria which I know were in use centuries after. Wonder if any is still in use today. When I was working as a volunteer on a dig on a Tel in Israel, I noted that at one end of the Tel (a Tel is a mound created by continuous city habitation) was a small crusader fort, erected there because it was the highest spot - probably on top of a previously evisting, much older citadel. That fort was later taken over by the Turks, and adapted. Then it fell into disuse. Now, it has an Israeli radar tower … ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-building-in-continious-use/610502/46 "2012-02-09T17:48:48Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > My house was built in 1930. > > Dang. My school was built in 1584 and the original building (for 12 pupils) is still in use. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-building-in-continious-use/610502/47 "2012-02-11T00:59:39Z")
How about some of the older Buddhist Chaitya halls in India, even if stupas don’t count? Horyu-ji monastery is almost as old as the Hagia Sophia, and it’s wooden. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-building-in-continious-use/610502/48 "2012-02-11T01:11:45Z")
> [@glee](#): > > My school was built in 1584 and the original building (for 12 pupils) is still in use. Gotcha beat: mine was built in 1575, but the original building has been turned into offices. When my grandfather died the new owners of his 18th century house had an architectural archaeologist (?) restore it. Turned out it wasn’t 18th century - it was 14th. The two chimneys were anyway, and they were holding up the entire back of the house. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-building-in-continious-use/610502/49 "2012-02-11T02:23:05Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Gotcha beat: mine was built in 1575, but the original building has been turned into offices. > > When my grandfather died the new owners of his 18th century house had an architectural archaeologist (?) restore it. Turned out it wasn’t 18th century - it was 14th. The two chimneys were anyway, and they were holding up the entire back of the house. :eek: Be careful, that’s a load-bearing poster. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-building-in-continious-use/610502.md?page=2)