INTERESTING FACT

The Pyramids Were White

The stereotypical vision of the Egyptian Pyramids are large mountain like brown piles of stone uprooting from the desert having a rough contour. Though when first constructed around 2500 BC. The pyramids were paper white and as smooth as glass, toping the pyramid was a golden capstone that gleamed in the desert sun. It was an amazing spectacle. The pyramids somewhat stayed in this state until the Arab invasion of Egypt around AD 500. The Arab invaders stripped the pyramid of it's smooth limestone and built a huge section of Cairo. Many of the Mosques and Palaces of Cairo consist of the Ancient stones of the pyramids. Quite sad actually.

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Posted by: Cody Gentry

FACT COMMENTS

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Any proof for this?

Me, Myself & I at 04:04PM, Sep 7th 2007.

I suppose it is just an theory. I did find few things on Thinkquest. Does anyone else has something to add. Any proofs or should we mark this fact as "debatable"?

From Thinkquest.org:

After the capstone had been placed, the ramps were gradually removed and replaced with scaffolds. There are also two different theories about the final shaping and smoothing of the pyramid. Trimming involves cutting away the excess triangular shapes of stones on each level and casing refers to adding triangular shaped smooth stones to each level. Workers on different levels of the scaffold polished the limestone with dolerite stones and abrasive powders. After the pyramid was smooth, it was then ready for the interior decoration.

http://library.thinkquest.org/J0110320/pyramid.htm

Tomo at 08:34AM, Sep 9th 2007.

this website rocks

shawna at 01:23PM, Nov 15th 2007.

Thanks :o)

Avram at 04:38PM, Nov 17th 2007.

This theory might be correct because of the position pyramids are located. The fine sands of the desert will be swept onto the pyramids, thus painting it the sand color we see now. To prove this theory you must locate the source where the stone is quarried from and decide if it's original color is white.

Johnny at 11:10PM, Jul 24th 2008.

Here's a view of the inside of a pyramid: http://www.richard-seaman.com/Travel/Egypt/Dahshur/AllPyramids/StaircaseInsideRedPyramid.jpg

Those stones are white!

Nick at 09:29PM, Jan 30th 2009.

im doing a egyptian project thingy for skool && im just researching!! which is really GREAT---> well @least i think it is!! im making my project out of cake... its ganna be a piramid cake

c.j at 08:13PM, Feb 25th 2009.

The muslim prophet (which was the founder of the religion of Islam) was born in the year 570 A.D. Which means Arabs at 500 A.D. had no idea what a mosque was. In fact, there was no stable religion in the Arab world at that time. People who were spiritual built monuments and statues that they used to idolize and worship. So I wouldn't be so sure about the mosques that were built with the pyramids' limestone.

F.M. at 09:41AM, May 21st 2009.

The encasing stone's arent theory they are fact. they have been verified by ancient visitors to the site in suriving writings (i believe one was a greek cant remember the name sorry). Also i believe phyiscal evidence exists at the site and some of the mantle still exists on the tip of the great pyramid.

taken from : http://www.timstouse.com/EarthHistory/Egypt/GreatPyramid/interestingfacts.htm

The pyramid is estimated to have about 2,300,000 stone blocks weighing from 2-30 Tons each with some weighing as much as 70 tons.

There is so much stone mass in the pyramid that the interior temperature is constant and equals the average temperature of the earth, 20 Degrees Celsius (68 Degrees Fahrenheit).

Two types of limestone were used for construction. A soft limestone either pure or nummulitic was used for the bulk of the core blocks and a hard white limestone for the mantle. Hard limestone becomes more polished with age.

The base of the pyramid covers 55,000m2 (592,000 ft2) with each side greater than 20,000m2 (218,000 ft2) in area.

The outer mantle was composed of 144,000 casing stones, all highly polished and flat to an accuracy of 1/100th of an inch, about 100 inches thick and weighing about 15 tons each.

The average casing stone on the lowest level was 5 ft. long by 5 ft. high by 6 ft. deep and weighed 15 tons.

The mortar used is of an unknown origin. It has been analyzed and its chemical composition is known but it can't be reproduced. It is stronger than the stone and still holding up today.

The cornerstone foundations of the pyramid have ball and socket construction capable of dealing with heat expansion and earthquakes.

There are no hieroglyphics or writing in the Great Pyramid.