Seems a little over the top particularly as there is still speculation as to whether the pyramids were ever actually clad in granite. I believe they are only partially recladding the pyramid but all that weight on sandstone doesn't seem prudent?
Add in the 1980's style fake cladding vibe and I'm not convinced. 😁
I'm often surprised when going to other countries how willing they are to rebuild stuff 'as it was' rather than preserve ruins. So many historical attractions in Japan you'd get half way round then "[insert temple] was burnt down in 1958 by a disgruntled monk - it was rebuild in 1972", this is after you've been told it's 1000 years old. I wonder what tourists to the UK think when wandering round our crumbly ruins! I supposed it does happen here (Eilean Donan & Bamburgh spring to mind)
^^ I suppose it's a difficult balancing act sometimes. Stonehenge was restored to a degree, lintel stones put back and many stoned reburied into concrete etc but in the whole it's fairly sympathetic?
I was reading about the great pyramid of Giza just the otheer day. Incredible to think it weighs 6 million tons and they were clad in white limestone, so the entire thing was bright white, which would be an incredible sight.
The joke about why the great pyramid is in Giza a: Because the British museum couldn't fit it in a crate.
I'm sure it'll be done sensitively.
Almost convincing AI picture, that. The Egyptians are pretty hot on not screwing around with their history or their monuments, and if there were any plans at all to restore any of the main pyramids, it would be with the same stone as originally, which wasn’t granite, it would be perfectly smooth, with the cap covered in gold. Pity the picture isn’t bigger, you’d probably be able to see the workers have all got six fingers on their hands.
^^ I dont understand, it's on numerous websites?
Many questions:
Clad in granite? So where is it all? Where does that come from? Who did they ask? Surely the sandstone is less durable? Did it get robbed for other buildings?
Haha, I love the way that they're seemingly doing it with six guys shovelling sand into bags with their hands.
Goddammit!
I’m often surprised when going to other countries how willing they are to rebuild stuff ‘as it was’ rather than preserve ruins. So many historical attractions in Japan you’d get half way round then “[insert temple] was burnt down in 1958 by a disgruntled monk – it was rebuild in 1972”, this is after you’ve been told it’s 1000 years old.
that’s a very Japanese thing - they value authenticity of process over the originality of an object. So the ‘ancient” temple might have been rebuilt a few years ago but the company of temple builders might have been building temples in exactly the same same way, continuously, for over a 1000 years
ive got a pair of Japanese jeans that are more authentically a pair of 501s than a pair of Levi’s because Levi’s have changed the spec a process over the years and the Japanese want something as like an original pair in terms of material and process as possible.
but they don’t value old things in the way we do. They don’t understand why a first edition copy of Alice in Wonderland should be more precious than a brand new copy - although they’d appreciate one that was printed and bound in exactly the same way by a company that’s been doing that the same way since guttenberg.
The uk’s system of values is fairly modern. Old things tended to be the preserve of the upper classes - you inherited your stately home and its furniture and treasures from your parents. Everyone else had to buy their stuff. So owning old stuff signalled your position in the upper classes.
micheal hestletine was once described by a fellow Tory as someone who’d ’bought his own furniture’ meaning he’d merely earned his money rather than being classy enough to have it handed down to him
then in the early 20th century a lot of the British upper class were taxed out of existence and had to sell the family silver. So the middle classes were able to buy ‘antiques’ and the trappings of old money became fashionably available to all.
in Japan old things don’t have that appeal, in fact quite the opposite. I met a couple once that had worked as ESOL teachers in Japan and were finding it incredibly tough financially as the living costs were so high. (They were actually supplementing their teaching by simulating sex under a glass coffee table for salary men at night)
One of them mentioned they’re bought a second hand DVD player as part of a conversational exercise with their students and that was seen a such a shameful low - buying something second hand - that the kids had a whip round for them.
Stonehenge was restored to a degree, lintel stones put back and many stoned reburied into concrete etc but in the whole it’s fairly sympathetic?
but there was also a time when visitors were invited to chip bits off as souvenirs
I’ve visited neololithic sites in wales that the army had used for target practice in the 1940s
One of them mentioned they’re bought a second hand DVD player as part of a conversational exercise with their students and that was seen a such a shameful low
The first time I went to Japan around 20 years ago I was surprised just how much second hand electronic equipment was for sale right in the middle of Tokyo. Certainly didn't appear to be any stigma to buying it.
If you really want to get a feel for Japanese weirdness go to Disney Tokyo!
Total tangent, but I'd echo avdave2. Japan (when I lived there in 2006-07 at least) had quite a lot of thrift stores, and - unike charity shops in the UK - you could sell your old stuff to them or get credit for exchanges. They were fun places to shop, I got a lovely Harris tweed coat from one.
Clad in granite?
The base layers was clad in granite. Higher up though it was white limestone.
Most of them are thought to have come loose during centuries of seismic activity (could have been an extreme tourism spot for a time) and then reused in other buildings as opposed to being actively removed for other use.
The granite being added here I think is mostly the original cladding which had fallen off vs importing new.
As an aside the hole in the side was from when one of Saladins descendants tried to knock it down. They got bored after several months of not overly great progress.
They don’t understand why a first edition copy of Alice in Wonderland should be more precious than a brand new copy
I think you'll find that Japanese art collectors are very careful about buying originals rather than copies. They completely understand that some things are valuable because they are old.
With things like buildings (or old cars, etc.), repairing damaged or decayed parts with equivalent new parts doesn't really affect their authenticity. If you replace the oil filter on an old car, it's still an authentic historic vehicle, same as if you replace a broken window in a historic building. Replacing rotten timber in a building with equivalent timber doesn't harm the authenticity of it, just like welding in new panels to replace rust in a classic car is fine. The Japanese approach just takes this to the extreme that the entire historical building is rebuilt at once. I don't have a problem with that, as long as it's faithful to the original structure.
As far as the pyramids go, restoring them to their original glory is fine with me, as long as the materials are authentic - stone that matches the original, mortar that is the same as the original. You're not going to hire thousands of workers to rebuild it manually so using modern machinery to do the work doesn't worry me as long as the end result is as close to the original as possible.
Perhaps negotiations with the Ethiopians on the mega hydroelectric damn have failed and they're hoping they'll be able to switch the pyramid back on and be energy independent?
Risk of bringing aliens back though I suppose.
Can they restore one old geezer? (Asking for a friend.)
If you replace the oil filter on an old car, it’s still an authentic historic vehicle,
I remember a documentary following one of the historic rallys - possibly the one to Monte Carlo - that teams had to enter pre-1970-something cars to enter. There was a Japanese team in a Hondo S200 which was made absolutely entirely of spare parts. All the parts had been on a shelf since before 1970 but they'd been assembled into a brand new car.
They don’t understand why a first edition copy of Alice in Wonderland should be more precious than a brand new copy
I think you’ll find that Japanese art collectors are very careful about buying originals rather than copies. They completely understand that some things are valuable because they are old.
They're valuable becuase they're unique and old, not really the same as a mass produced book though where the contents is the same whether its in a hardback or on a kindle screen. (I've tranported an authors original manuscripts with the same climate controls, air ride suspension, security and insurance arrangements as we used for famous paintings and sculptures but the blokes delivering books to Waterstones don't have to exercise the same care)
My old art school has a collection of 16th and 17th century Japanese woodblock prints. They'd arrived in the UK in the late 19th century as wrapping material on imported industrial ceramics 🙂
Do we know if this is genuine yet? Or AI fantasy click bait?
Any more pictures or just this one? If it was real there would be more photos and videos by now.
My facebook feed is full of futuristic campervans but they all turn out to be AI generated. You can't trust anything these days.
There's a vid on Facebook from the head of antiquities in Egypt. looks legit
Do we know if this is genuine yet? Or AI fantasy click bait?
There article in the OP references/ links other news outlets with stories and pictures. Pictures are credited to the photographer. The site is open to visitors so if you search for it on Instagram for instance you find tourist images with the granite in place as per the articles. But it seems to me so far it's more a case of excavating and revealing the cladding that was still in situ - digging down rather than building up.
Looks like a real tasty Giza.
Do we know if this is genuine yet? Or AI fantasy click bait?
I read a news story about it the other day. Apparently they decided to work on the smallest of the three famous pyramids, but didn't talk to archeologists about it - it's a Ministry of Tourism project. That pyramid was clad in granite, but apparently the builders left blocks of granite lying around the base so the plan is to dig those up and use them to re-clad it. Problem is, those blocks were apparently not actually used in the first place, and even if they were, there's no way to know where they were originally placed. Not really surprising that archaeologists are opposed to it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/01/pyramid-restoration-archaeology-egypt-controversy/