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Wasn't it greener back then tho? I mean they're pretty close to a big-ass river. Also they used to be painted, and I am wondering why they wouldn't repaint them because wouldn't it provide a bit more protection from weathering and help keep them preserved?
they used to be painted
Not painted, covered in smooth white stone, with a reflective metal capstone shining in the sun.
I am wondering why they wouldn't repaint them
They would look even worse, supposing the paint would even stick to the stones (would almost certainly need plaster), and nothing like they originally did.
The original cover is gone, after millennia of the pyramids being used as a quarry, as are the capstones (probably the first to be taken to be melted into jewelry).
What we see now are the inner stones, scoured by millennia of pillaging and erosion.
Repairing the pyramids would now probably require replacing the outer, eroded, layer of inner stones, and covering that with a fresh layer of white stone, and making new capstones.
It'd be very expensive, and probably ruin a lot of the archaeological value of the site.
They'd look breathtaking, though, as they did when new.
Btw there is no evidence of golden capstones ever being used on the great pyramids, and some good evidence against it.
Still impressive anyway. Massive white geometric shapes shining under the Egyptian sun... if you want people to catch religion that's a pretty good start, I think.
We could just build a new one to experience the effect!
Or use augmented reality glasses to overlay CGI images of what they used to look like over the real ones...
(I'm not sure we've got good enough transparent HDR screens yet to properly display how bright those things would be under the shining sun, though.)
I’ve long thought there could be a market for something like the pay binoculars you sometimes find at scenic viewpoints, except instead of allowing a better view of the current scene it would be a display of a historical view from that point that you could look around, with the display matching the movement of the device. I think with the current state of VR technology something like that is now feasible with a high degree of realism, even with animation, like watching steamships or sailing ships in a historic harbor view. I don’t know if they could be profitably made, though, especially factoring in the expense of creating a good VR model of the scene.
The Nile Delta was at least, even more so than today. Ancient Egypt knew about irrigation.
The pyramids are about 9 kilometers from the current river, at the edge of the green or now urban sprawl zone. Beyond there is some more urban sprawl and these green irrigation circles to the north west. west / south west is dessert.
The Nile has multiple branches that intertwine and move over time. They have found evidence that at the time the pyramids were built, a branch was much closer to them. Facilitating moving the limestone blocks via boat to the construction site.
It needs 4 sided pyramids so in several thousand years later we can make stories about 3 sided pyramid ships landing on them.