Why did restoration begin only in the 18th century?

There is an opinion that supposedly, most of the discoveries of various objects around the world were made by Europeans, which explains a lot.

In fact, it does not explain much, and the “first discoveries”, as we know from the official history, were made by locals and Americans, and all sorts of people, all of a sudden started around the end of the 18th century and for the most part from the 19th to the 20th century.

But in this article, I would like to write not only about the “first discoveries” but about such facts as the complete abandonment of ancient sites, constant restorations of the 19-20 centuries, etc.

I will give a simple example, even a few examples. According to the official version and on the basis of some pictures of the 19th to 20th centuries, many objects were completely abandoned.

In Asia, many sites were found completely overgrown in the jungle, the same as Angkor Wat and Borobudur, although they are some of the most important and popular religious sites in Asia and even some of the largest in the world. How are they all overgrown?

While many “temples” in Asia were found overgrown in the jungle, in Egypt, for example, everything was in the sand. If the pyramid of Cheops was more or less normally visible, some temples, such as Abu Simbel and many others, as well as the Great Sphinx, were almost completely covered with sand.

According to official information, some temples were accidentally found in the 19th – 20th century under the sand, as they were not even noticeable.

In South America, many ancient cities were also found in the jungle, even the same Maya. In addition, some pyramids and other structures were also found completely abandoned.

So, now the main question I’m getting at is: Where were all the people? Did people in the 16th century, for example, live in their city/settlement and not go out at all?

There are ancient chronicles, which, by the way, for unknown reasons, were not taken into account when “writing history”. Has no one ever written in the chronicles or any other sources about the discovery of some of the largest and greatest structures in the world?

And the funny thing is that it is one thing to do with Egypt and objects covered with sand, but why was almost everything abandoned in Asia? Much was also found in South America “for the first time” in the 19th and 20th centuries. And then there is a no less interesting topic, the constant “restorations” of the 19-20th century. All that “for the first time” was found mostly in the 19-20th century began to be “restored”.

But as I have read about it several times, for unknown reasons, those “restorations” did not restore the ancient objects but removed the most important elements that could be important for real history, for discovering the purpose of the building or buildings, its functions, etc.

The Sphinx began to “restored” in the 20th century, but from the earlier pictures, there was a hole in the head, as well as on the back, but now it seems to have been simply concreted and what was found in the Sphinx is not well known. And there are many such examples; a sharp jump in development over 200 years is not normal and explainable, it is another mystery if these facts can be called so.

Based on official history, one gets the impression that around the 18th century, all of a sudden, people woke up and started to study, create, purify, “restore” everything, etc.

In any case, all this is difficult to explain, it seems to me. In Asia, for example, religion generally has a high priority in life, but why were some of the most famous temples, not only in Asia but all over the world, in that case, abandoned?

Again, I just gave my subjective opinion and hopefully gave someone at least some thoughts to think about because to me, many of these facts seem strange, and sometimes you begin to wonder why historians have not written history, starting immediately from the 18th century, because if you compare the events of the 19-20th century and the early, then, in fact, almost nothing happened at all.