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What Did The Great Pyramids Look Like In Their Prime?
The pyramids are nearly 5,000 years old at this point
The great pyramids in Egypt are old. Very, very, very old. We are closer, in age, today to ancient Rome than the Romans were to the great pyramids in the time of Jesus. They were ancient before ancient was a thing.
The great age of the pyramids makes it so that they can be forgiven for being a little past their prime. Their shape, size, and former grandeur still capture the imagination and wonder of people who see them today. But these pyramids used to look very different from how they look today. Years of wear, looting, and pollution have worn the pyramids down, so they are but shadows of their former selves.
What did the pyramids look like in their prime? They were far more impressive than they are today.
A Fabled Glow
Today, the pyramids are dingey and obviously extremely old. Like a rock worn down by years of erosion, the pyramids have lost much of their former luster. In their heyday, the pyramids actually glowed in the sun. That is because the exteriors were cased in a layer of polished white limestone. This stone would have reflected the sun making the pyramids gleam for miles around.
Unfortunately, limestone has long been a valuable building material, so it is no wonder that the limestone was slowly stripped away over the centuries. It was much easier to peel the limestone off the face of the pyramids than it was to mine it out of the ground. Stripping of the pyramids started over 3,000 years ago and continued all the way until Medieval times. The result was that the limestone slowly vanished from the faces of the pyramids, leaving them with the rugged stubbly look that they have today.
It would have been something to see the size of the pyramids wrapped in the glow of the sun.
Shining Peaks
Another thing that has been lost to time was the capstones placed on top of the largest pyramids. These capstones were called pyramidions, and they adorned the most elaborate pyramids for generations. The pyramidions were covered in a layer of electrum which was a mixture of gold and silver. That would have made the tops of the…
