Mouselemming comments on This is what the pyramids used to look like. They were covered with polished white limestone and had a peak made of pure gold.

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 1 point 3 months ago (2 children)

If it was for religious reasons they would definitely use pure gold

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[–] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 5 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

Just looked on wikipedia and they say

"... and were sometimes covered with plates of copper, gold or electrum." (electrum is an alloy of gold and silver IIRC)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramidion Which makes a lot of sense, gold was and is very expensive

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[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago

"Plates of" especially makes sense. And you do recall correctly, electrum is a natural alloy, which means they wouldn't have had to create it from scratch.

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