In the Japanese city of Nara stands a wooden temple called Horyu-ji. Its main pagoda was built around 607 CE, which makes it the oldest wooden building in the world that is still standing. The temple has survived earthquakes, fires, wars and over 1,400 years of weather.
The carpenters who built Horyu-ji didn’t use nails. Instead, they cut every beam and column with notches and tabs that fit together like puzzle pieces. When an earthquake shakes the ground, the whole temple wobbles instead of cracking. The joints flex slightly, which lets the building absorb the shock.
Visitors are still welcome inside the temple complex. Monks live and work there, just as they have for centuries. The roof has been patched, the floors have been swept smooth by millions of feet, and the original wooden statues inside have been carefully restored. Yet the bones of the building are still the same trees cut down in the year 600s.
