this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2026
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This is what the pyramids used to look like. They were covered with polished white limestone and had a peak made of pure gold. (lemmy.today)
submitted 1 month ago by sanitation@lemmy.today to c/interestingasfuck@lemmy.world
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[–] nexguy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

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.

https://youtube.com/@historyforgranite

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

A big thing missing from basically any old stone construction is all the wood.
If you see holes in the walls that's probably where wood beams were inserted to form floors, and the walls would probably be lined with wood on the inside as well. And, like.. Wooden furniture lol.
Like how the fuck do you put up paintings on stone walls? If you line it with wood you can just hammer in nails like normal.

I think churches are a great way to get an idea of what castles would look like in the past: Lots of decorations and colour, whole wood structures that are just missing now, and all the stone would probably be covered in whitewash or somesuch.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Bright white casing stones, yes. 50 foot tall gold capstone, no.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Humans own 23³m³ of gold total

[–] myotheraccount@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Humans have mined more than 200000 metric tons of gold, which is about 10000 cubic meters, not 23

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Whoops. 23³ m³

[–] snugglesthefalse@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

23 cubed cubic metres? Why not just put a few zeroes in the first place?

[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It's crazy that even on the centuries old photo on the top, Cairo in the background was already that developed!

[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

The pizza hut across the street was probably fire back then

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (3 children)

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.

[–] sunbeam60@feddit.uk 1 points 1 month ago

I weirdly agree.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Similarly, I would like to see the Coliseum rebuilt and used as a football stadium.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I'm for it, but I think it would be very expensive to get it up to code.

The Pyramids are just piles of rocks, with no modern purpose.

Really, we should use these things for their intended purpose, if possible. And, keep them in good condition. We do it with other historic buildings.

[–] asmoranomar@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The neopyramidal period. For some reason they stopped building pyramids for 4000 years but decided to start again

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

i think it'd be funny if we just built one single new pyramid.
4000 years of no pyramids, one more pops up, then nothing for another 10'000 years.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

See that feels very archeological or eccentric 5 or 6 with the whole shebang over a few centuries is weird

[–] lividweasel@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

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.

[–] Robomekk@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago (3 children)

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.

[–] Mistiygirl@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago

I remember the signs there and museum did tell that the great pyramids also had golden Pyramidions.

[–] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

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

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If it was for religious reasons they would definitely use pure gold

[–] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Just looked on wikipedia and they say

"... and were sometimes covered with plates of copper, gold or electrum." (electrum is an alloy of gold and silver IIRC)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramidion Which makes a lot of sense, gold was and is very expensive

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

"Plates of" especially makes sense. And you do recall correctly, electrum is a natural alloy, which means they wouldn't have had to create it from scratch.

[–] Maiq@piefed.zip 1 points 1 month ago

If it was capped in gold, dusk and dawn could have been very pretty.