Rising from the sands of Giza, the Egyptian pyramids testify to human ingenuity and engineering. These large structures erected on the site of the tombs of the ancient pharaohs have stood for thousands of years.
The ancient Egyptian pyramids, despite their considerable age, are among the most enduring monuments in the world. So what did the pyramids look like when they were first built? And have they changed over time? Live Science describes it.
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When ancient Egyptian pyramids were erected, both at Giza and elsewhere, they did not look the sandy brown as they often do today; most likely, they were covered with a shiny layer of sedimentary rock.
“All the pyramids were covered with fine white limestone,” said Mohamed Megahed, associate professor at Charles University’s Egyptology Institute in Prague. The limestone crust must have been smooth and polished to form a layer that shimmered bright white under the Egyptian sun.
According to the National Museum of Scotland, the builders only used about 6.1 million tons of limestone during the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza, which includes one of the original limestone blocks. The Great Pyramid, also called the Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) in honor of Pharaoh Khufu, who ordered its construction during his reign (around 2551 BC – 2528 BC), is the largest and oldest of all the pyramids at Giza. However, as with most pyramid shells, the facing stones were later repurposed for other construction work during the reign of Egyptian rulers.
There is evidence that the facing stones began to be dismantled during the reign of Tutankhamun (about 1336-1327 BC), and this continued into the 12th century AD, says Egyptologist Mark Lehner. The 1303 AD earthquake may also loosen some rocks.
Today, the pyramids of Giza appear to be a little more weathered than in antiquity, but still retain some of their original limestone crust. “You can see it on top of the Khafre Pyramid at Giza,” Megahead said.
The Pyramid of Khafre (Chephren), named after the pharaoh Khafre (who reigned from ca. 2520 BC to 2494 BC), has remnants of paving stones at the top that give the impression that the second peak is stuck to the first. In ancient Egypt, the lower floors of this pyramid also had red granite cladding. The third and smallest of the three main pyramids at Giza, the Pyramid of Menkaure (Mycerinus) was named after the pharaoh Menkaure, who reigned from 2490 to 2472 BC. There was also a red granite shell around their lower floors.
The pyramids of Giza today have nothing on their tops, but they originally contained stones covered with electrum, a mixture of gold and silver, also called pyramids, according to Megahead.
Most of the pyramids have been lost over time, but there are a few surviving examples in museums. These examples show that the pyramids were carved with religious images. For example, the British Museum maintains a hieroglyphic-covered pyramid from Abydos, an archaeological site in Egypt that depicts dead people worshiping the ancient Egyptian god Osiris and embalmed by the jackal-headed Anubis.
Given the pyramids’ former glory, elements missing today may seem like unhealed wounds. Perhaps the best example of this can be seen in the Pyramid of Menkaur. “When you see the Menkaura Pyramid from the north, you can see a large depression,” said archaeologist Yukinori of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Nagoya University in Japan.
The break in Menkaur’s pyramid may have been a visual defect that would not have happened in ancient times, but the advantage of this type of damage is that today it opens a window into the pyramid’s interior.
Previously Focus He mentioned an ancient mummification recipe recently discovered by scientists.
Source: Focus
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