Familiar plaster blisters are a sign of the damage to come. Visitors to the main church or monastery will recall the sheer faces of these structures. The monastery rises six stories above the terrain, about even with the bottom of the main church's roof line. But the church rises even higher, topped by the three towers. The two tallest steeples, known as the bell tower and the observation tower, show their own signs of age.
Large cracks are visible in mortar between bricks, allowing water to gain entrance.
Chunks of cement are missing from the frames of windows and arches. Scaffolding is the answer. But a framework of metal poles will not enclose the entire shrine once work begins next year, or the year after. Then the scaffolding will be moved to the next section. In addition to the height of the buildings and the uneven terrain on which they rest, another safety concern for the workers will be the wind.