The Artifact: The Shining Pyramid

In this episode of STBYM’s The Artifact, Robert discusses the Great Pyramid of Giza and its original luster.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
I Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb, and
this is the Artifact, a short form series from Stuff
to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on particular objects, ideas,
and moments in time. If you happen to be an

(00:23):
admirer of the early eighties rap and dance music scene
in l A, then you may have heard of the
Egyptian Lover. Gregory Broussard based his entire musical persona on
a kind of mash up of ancient Egypt and synthesizer
age living. His lyrics frequently refer to the Nile, as

(00:44):
well as gold speakers and water beds. But amid all
this hip hop Egypt Domania, one particular lyric fragment stands
out from the song Egypt Egypt of his debut album
on the Nile quote, pyramids are also shiny. The women
here are also cute. The freaks are on the floor

(01:05):
now dancing to beats that I compute. We, of course,
should not spend too much time comparing the Nile King's
lyrics here to actual ancient Egyptian history, Yet that first
line is quite enticing. Pyramids are as shiny, are they Well,
maybe not anymore. Without a doubt, the Pyramids of Giza

(01:28):
are awe inspiring works of human endeavor. The Great Pyramid,
built in the twenty century b c e. Towers four
hundred and forty nine point five ft or a hundred
and thirty seven ms, and is estimated to contain two
point three million stone blocks, each waying two point five
to fifteen tons. It was the tallest structure in the

(01:50):
world for more than four thousand years, and even today
it stands taller than such landmarks as the Statue of
Liberty and Big Ben And the Great Pyramid was once
even taller thirty one ft or nine point five meters
taller to be exact. As you can probably guess, this
is because humans have absconded with materials from the Great

(02:11):
Pyramid over the millennia. This includes the cap stone or
pyramid ian, which has been lost since antiquity, but it
also entails the white limestone casing that once covered it entirely. Yes,
the Great Pyramid would not only have been also shiny,
it would have gleamed with the brilliance of the sun,

(02:33):
visible from various important ancient sites. The divine brilliance of
the god Ray would have seen part of the construction itself.
As Gary Shaw pointed out in a article for Apollo Magazine,
the ancient Egyptians sourced the casings limestone from the Toura quarries,
separate from the source of the pyramids lower quality limestone interior.

(02:56):
When noted. Islamic traveler and polymath A Latif al Baghdadi
visited the Great Pyramid during the twelfth century CE, much
of the outer casing was still in place, and he
described untranslated inscriptions in the casing as well. But in
time this limestone, too would steadily vanish to be repurposed

(03:19):
into the works of medieval Cairo. Tune into additional editions
of the artifact each week hosted by either Joe or myself.
As always, you can email us at contact at stuff
to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your

(03:47):
Mind is a production of I Heart Radio. For more
podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.