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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)
this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2026
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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
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.
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.
Never been in the "we" category here, it's just so obvious that ruins of any kind and even just old-ish (like within 200 years) buildings rarely look like they were supposed to. It's disturbing and sad that most people can't seem to realise that by themselves.
When kids were shown the white marble buildings in ancient Rome on TV and history books and whatnot, and then end up thinking that's how it was, instead of with colourful paint - if that is disturbing to you, you must have been a rather recent arrival on earth, no?
There's quite a few Reconstruction Castles, newly built castles that have tried to be as historically accurate as possible
So you don't have to imagine, you can actually visit a (reconstruction of based on evidence of the time) living piece of ancient history
Thanks for the additional insight!
I see, another wirtual viewer /s