Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb, and
Speaker 1: this is the Artifact, a short form series from Stuff
Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on particular objects, ideas,
Speaker 1: and moments in time. If you happen to be an
Speaker 1: admirer of the early eighties rap and dance music scene
Speaker 1: in l A, then you may have heard of the
Speaker 1: Egyptian Lover. Gregory Broussard based his entire musical persona on
Speaker 1: a kind of mash up of ancient Egypt and synthesizer
Speaker 1: age living. His lyrics frequently refer to the Nile, as
Speaker 1: well as gold speakers and water beds. But amid all
Speaker 1: this hip hop Egypt Domania, one particular lyric fragment stands
Speaker 1: out from the song Egypt Egypt of his debut album
Speaker 1: on the Nile quote, pyramids are also shiny. The women
Speaker 1: here are also cute. The freaks are on the floor
Speaker 1: now dancing to beats that I compute. We, of course,
Speaker 1: should not spend too much time comparing the Nile King's
Speaker 1: lyrics here to actual ancient Egyptian history, Yet that first
Speaker 1: line is quite enticing. Pyramids are as shiny, are they Well,
Speaker 1: maybe not anymore. Without a doubt, the Pyramids of Giza
Speaker 1: are awe inspiring works of human endeavor. The Great Pyramid,
Speaker 1: built in the twenty century b c e. Towers four
Speaker 1: hundred and forty nine point five ft or a hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty seven ms, and is estimated to contain two
Speaker 1: point three million stone blocks, each waying two point five
Speaker 1: to fifteen tons. It was the tallest structure in the
Speaker 1: world for more than four thousand years, and even today
Speaker 1: it stands taller than such landmarks as the Statue of
Speaker 1: Liberty and Big Ben And the Great Pyramid was once
Speaker 1: even taller thirty one ft or nine point five meters
Speaker 1: taller to be exact. As you can probably guess, this
Speaker 1: is because humans have absconded with materials from the Great
Speaker 1: Pyramid over the millennia. This includes the cap stone or
Speaker 1: pyramid ian, which has been lost since antiquity, but it
Speaker 1: also entails the white limestone casing that once covered it entirely. Yes,
Speaker 1: the Great Pyramid would not only have been also shiny,
Speaker 1: it would have gleamed with the brilliance of the sun,
Speaker 1: visible from various important ancient sites. The divine brilliance of
Speaker 1: the god Ray would have seen part of the construction itself.
Speaker 1: As Gary Shaw pointed out in a article for Apollo Magazine,
Speaker 1: the ancient Egyptians sourced the casings limestone from the Toura quarries,
Speaker 1: separate from the source of the pyramids lower quality limestone interior.
Speaker 1: When noted. Islamic traveler and polymath A Latif al Baghdadi
Speaker 1: visited the Great Pyramid during the twelfth century CE, much
Speaker 1: of the outer casing was still in place, and he
Speaker 1: described untranslated inscriptions in the casing as well. But in
Speaker 1: time this limestone, too would steadily vanish to be repurposed
Speaker 1: into the works of medieval Cairo. Tune into additional editions
Speaker 1: of the artifact each week hosted by either Joe or myself.
Speaker 1: As always, you can email us at contact at stuff
Speaker 1: to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your
Speaker 1: Mind is a production of I Heart Radio. For more
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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.