As civilizations around the globe deteriorate, a group of thrill-seekers travels to Eden, a territory the novel describes as a “Virgin Zone.” A habitat where nature can bury the remains of buildings and other signs of human activity beneath trees and other nonhuman life. The novel’s characters reference prior trips to monumental buildings before venturing into Eden.

Em.23759, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

These include skyscrapers such as Dubai’s Burj Khalifa (image above), as well as trekking through archeological areas found in the Amazon (image below). I used this image of an Incan fort as an example of what the characters could have seen on their journey

William Lewis Herndon, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The text doesn’t explicitly say whether the Burj Khalifa is still functioning as a luxury hotel, but one trip involved using it for a daredevil stunt. Even so, the book implies that the Earth will still reclaim these buildings and fortifications, no matter how imposing and strong the architects initially intended them to be.