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It's crazy that even on the centuries old photo on the top, Cairo in the background was already that developed!
The pizza hut across the street was probably fire back then
I didn't know they had such nice cameras either. Really ahead of their time those caironians.
This gave me a much needed giggle. Thanks!
Imagine being the first person to realize that the Empire is dead and you can just fucking climb up there with your buddies and take that gold cap lol.
These stones were mostly removed from the great pyramid just 700 years ago. After an earthquake people began removing them for a few centuries to build other things until they were all gone. The great pyramid had its casing stones for 85% of its life.
Edit: I highly recommend "history for granite" on youtube.
its amazing how we look at historical constructions and assume thats always how it looked.
You are right, The Pyramids used to be shining white beacons of marble, but the stone was.. "repurposed" for building after the end of the pharos.
Medieval castles too, all anyone sees today are grey, bare rock, dingy, cold, drafty castles.. But when they were new? before photographs and film? They were plastered white, and filled with rugs and tapestries that made them beautiful, stunning, and warm.
Thanks for the additional insight!
They should refurbish them.
Why not? Just because they haven't been yet? Historical significance? Blah, blah blah. I'm sure the people who made them would want it. And I bet it would increase tourism. We take this shit way too seriously.
I weirdly agree.
I would object because of the bureaucracy. It would cost less to make a new one. Then you could do both. And in 5000 years we might get new alien conspiracies about why we have two sets of pyramids in two different time periods.
The neopyramidal period. For some reason they stopped building pyramids for 4000 years but decided to start again
Similarly, I would like to see the Coliseum rebuilt and used as a football stadium.
It would certainly shift focus from all the plastic bags blowing around it in the wind
From what I understand the polished limestone is accurate for many pyramids, but the gold pyramidion seems to be more of an edge case on some smaller pyramids.
A gold top wouldn’t even be visible from the ground on a large polished white pyramid.
I remember the signs there and museum did tell that the great pyramids also had golden Pyramidions.
A gold top wouldn’t even be visible from the ground on a large polished white pyramid.
The point of pyramids was of religious nature, it was to be closer to the sky and allow dead pharaohs to go in their version of the after life so it's likely that the gold wasn't to be pretty but for a religious something
Also, i wonder if it was a gold alloy and not pure gold
If it was capped in gold, dusk and dawn could have been very pretty.
I believe it’s generally accepted that they were usually capped with electrum, not gold. Electrum is a naturally occurring alloy of mostly gold and silver, with some copper or platinum and other metals.
I think castles in Europe are similar. They used to have plastered, white washed facades. Over time they wore down, giving way to the raw stone look most of us associate with castles.
Classical statues too
Right! Those white Greek marble busts used to be fully painted. But we only think of them as plain white sculptures.
Man, the aliens were sure good at building these
I think one of the purposes of the pyramids was to be a sort of ancient beacon. The stone reflected the sun and moonlight, making it pretty tough to get lost. In the days of no GPS or electricity, I'm sure this was of great importance.
Have you ever been playing Minecraft and wandered too far from base before building a bed and just had to abandon that base until you find it by accident later? Imagine that IRL and you can't just build a new base real quick
I think they just wanted to build a giant titty.
The original original Tomb Raider
Feels quite secondary to the "I have the biggest" contest that we saw later with cathedrals and now skyscrapers.
I think one of the purposes of the pyramids was to be a sort of ancient beacon.
Aliens needed to know where to land.
Remember the Great Pyramid of Giza? This is it today. Feel old yet?
China has successfully killed the wither and now has the resources necessary to activate a beacon
And green/greener lands, as far as I know.
No but shockingly close. The pyramids were built starting around 2630 BCE. But the African Humid Period ended about 5000-6000 years ago, so about 2974 BCE on the near end.
About 350 years is shockingly close. That's about the length of the Ptolmaic dynasty. That's Isaac Newton being active to today. Not recent by any means, but that's "we still know about this" time scales