It is without a doubt the most heart warming feeling when humanity can look back on the last several thousand years and observe their ancestral history and that of other civilisations also. Today humans can travel the length and breadth of the globe to enjoy historic monuments and architecture and religious settlements going back several thousands of years.
Through wars, disease and changes in governance, border movements and changes in faith, the majority of our worldwide heritage is there for all to visit and see for themselves. Even the most detrimental government can see a use in archaic foundations that were the building blocks of today's current and modern societies.
We do too in the UK, so does Greece, Spain and a whole multitude of other countries. Which is where we begin our story. In a region that gave us so much in written form, from mathematics to astronomy, literature to war tactics and possibly urban conservation in its own right. Athens holds some of Europe's most important archaeological sites. But it wasn't until the last century that the international community decided to take a more active roll in protecting the sites of significant historical interest globally.
The aim of any one single government is to incorporate a manifesto which is far reaching and protects all of the heritage of their country. In 1931 the First International Congress of Architects and Technicians of Historic Monuments in Athens devised a seven point plan to protect and revitalise historic monuments across the planet.
The Athens Charter for the Restoration of Historic Monuments included the following measures and observations: to establish organizations for restoration advice, ensure projects are reviewed with knowledgeable criticism, establish national legislation to preserve historic sites, rebury excavations which were not to be restored, allow the use of modern techniques and materials in restoration work, place historical sites under custodial protection and to protect the area surrounding historic sites.
Never before had so much emphasis been placed on historic monuments and for countries around the world to sit up and take note of the occurrence. Those that did from the outset, like Egypt and Greece themselves, have benefited greatly from well managed tourist attractions to places of learning. All of which bring great wealth to the economic structure, after which, reinvestment can be made to protect other sites of historical interest.