Ben van Kerkwyk

One of my favorite topics in the last couple of years has been looking at the erosion on the Giza Plateau.

And of some of the big monuments, in particular, like the whole middle pyramid complex on the Giza Plateau.

And what's fun about this too is that we don't have to guess, right?

We know how long it takes.

Studies have been done about limestone erosion.

Turns out there's almost an endless number of conveniently dated limestone slabs all around the world.

They're tombstones in cemeteries, right?

So they get dated, they get cut, they get inscribed with the date when it was put up.

And then so you can measure it and you can come back over whatever decades and measure erosion.

And so how long does it take for this face of this limestone erosion to recede?

Yeah.

100% because there are still blocks that are protected.

So a lot of this has been rebuilt.

This is tricky to see.

So you can actually see that the less eroded sections are actually modern restorations because this is so eroded that it's falling apart.

Right.

And this isn't even the exterior of the structure.

This is the interior core masonry.

All of this was also fabricated.

for God knows how many thousands of years, encased in granite.