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.

Rate:

(2.95) World Facts Category | Comment this Fact
Posted by: Cody Gentry
FACT COMMENTS
If you want to report the problem with the fact please comment bellow so we can come to a solution together. Your e–mail address won’t be published. Comments will be deleted if they are offensive and make no sense. You can register your own profile avatar photo at Gravatar.com.
Oldest comments first!


Please wait...





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
Those stones are white!
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.