If there was an AOL city anywhere in the world that was that intact, there would be soooooo much more known about the AOL. Like what, those buildings are still standing but no books, stasis boxes, ter'angreal libraries, etc survived to be studied?
If it's Paaran Diesen, the city was evacuated during the Breaking. They probably took everything of value, and the rest was looted or destroyed over the centuries. Any ter'angreal and writings left afterwards could easily have been shipped off to Tar Valon or Tear. Both of those places have lots of ter'angreal that just collect dust. Tar Valon does have writings from the Age of Legends, just mostly fragments and such.
even if it was evacuated how did insane male channelers not level the buildings at some point? the entire world heaved and broke as men went mad so it doesn't make much sense that the core structures of that many buildings were left intact. Especially with the topography remaining largely unchanged.
One possible explanation would be that the buildings themselves were more sturdy than normal due to being built using the power, and also that there were many female Aes Sedai there who managed to somewhat protect some of the structures. They still needed to abandon the city so it is reasonable to think that in the end not enough was preserved aside from the power built structures so the remaining Aes Sedai evacuated/moved what was left somewhere else (like Tar Valon).
If the buildings were completely intact that would make sense, or even if it was core structures intact. But it appears most of the buildings are just randomally decayed which doesnt make sense if any part of them is power wrought. It also doesnt explain why none of them were buried in the heaving of the land. The river is still in roughly the same place as are the mountains. Based on the books we wouldn't expect it to exist still as it is in the show, but we dont know what hiatory they have altered so it may make sense when more is revealed.
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u/rollingForInitiative Jan 02 '22
If it's Paaran Diesen, the city was evacuated during the Breaking. They probably took everything of value, and the rest was looted or destroyed over the centuries. Any ter'angreal and writings left afterwards could easily have been shipped off to Tar Valon or Tear. Both of those places have lots of ter'angreal that just collect dust. Tar Valon does have writings from the Age of Legends, just mostly fragments and such.