Why the pyramids terrify scientists (video)

The pyramids at Giza looked very different when they were first built

Pyramid of Khafre (left) and the Great Pyramid of Giza, Oct. 2018 (Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty)

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What beacons of light must have appeared?

(Garry Shaw, Apollo Magazine, 1/30/19) In February, a large block of the Great Pyramid of Giza’s original casing will go on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh for the first time since it was brought from Egypt in 1872 by Astronomer Royal of Scotland Charles Piazzi Smyth.

This block is the only casing stone from the Great Pyramid, [speculated to have been] built by King Khufu around 2550 BC, to be publicly displayed outside of Egypt,

• (The Egyptian government is contesting the Scottish museum’s rights to the stone. The museum asserts that it has the appropriate permissions and documents).
• The world's largest pyramid is the Great Pyramid of Cholula in Mexico, hidden by Catholics

Was the Great Pyramid (smaller than Chalula, Mexico) shiny white in its heyday? (Quora)

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The outer casing (nms.ac.uk)

It’s important to remember that when we visit the Great Pyramid today, we aren’t seeing the monument as it originally appeared. The pyramid may look weathered but largely unchanged by time. However, it was once even more striking.

When it was first built, its ascending layers of huge limestone blocks -- which today give it a somewhat jagged appearance -- were hidden by a smooth layer of fine white limestone.

This layer concealed the pyramid’s core and gave its surface a perfect, sloping smooth finish, gleaming white in the powerful desert sunlight -- a ramp rather than stairway to heaven. More