Rocks… oh yes now there’s a topic i could twitter about for a very long time. Those who know me know I sometimes steal rocks… not because I’m a geologist and know about them. No, see it’s much more basic than that. I like them cos they are aesthetically appealing. I feel about some rocks the way a few of my female friends feel about shopping. I simply can’t come home without them. Question is ... what is the appeal?
Over the years I’ve been ‘out’ about my obsession, I continue to be surprised how many people ‘fess up to having the odd rock or twenty in their own home. It seems I’m not alone. Rock envy is has a historical past.
It would appear that it's as old as the Pyramids in Egypt. If you were to ask most people to describe the Pyramids, they would talk of monumental mountains with jagged contours erupting from the desert floor and penetrating the vast skies in a smorgasbord of brown-stone hues and sand tones.
And of course this is correct today, but if you were to ask the average Egyptian living in 4,500 BC the same question, the answer would be completely different. Not because the ancient Egyptians were colourblind or not very good at describing, but rather because the original design of the Pyramids was very different.
Oh yes, the Egyptian’s loved stones and rocks like I do. They constructed the pyramids to be more than impressive in size and design… history has it that they went all out to be the rock kings of their time. The walls of the pyramids were paper white, smooth as glass and as the creme-de-la-creme they topped each monument with a golden capstone. Each construction would gleam in the desert sun, like a beacon as bright as any star. In Ancient Egypt - rocks rocked!
The reign of the rock kings was supreme for about 5,000 years until in 500 AD the Arabs invaded, probably green with rock envy and so the rock wars began. The Arabs stripped the limestone cladding and spirited it back to be recycled in Cairo. Yes folks, not only was this evidence of early rock envy but it was also early recycling.
Perhaps the ancient Egyptians knew about solar power panels and global warming.. and thought they could kill two birds with one stone by making their Pharaohs’ tomb practical as well as aesthetically symbolic. And when the Arab’s stole the technology in the first industrial deconstruction case, the Egyptians just chuckled up their flared sleeves at the Arab’s primitive understanding of rocks just being rocks for building no matter how shiny and bright. Who knows!
Don't believe me? Go and see, cos even today people travelling to Cairo, can still see some mosques and palaces harbouring hard evidence of ancient stone stealing.
Over the years I’ve been ‘out’ about my obsession, I continue to be surprised how many people ‘fess up to having the odd rock or twenty in their own home. It seems I’m not alone. Rock envy is has a historical past.
It would appear that it's as old as the Pyramids in Egypt. If you were to ask most people to describe the Pyramids, they would talk of monumental mountains with jagged contours erupting from the desert floor and penetrating the vast skies in a smorgasbord of brown-stone hues and sand tones.
And of course this is correct today, but if you were to ask the average Egyptian living in 4,500 BC the same question, the answer would be completely different. Not because the ancient Egyptians were colourblind or not very good at describing, but rather because the original design of the Pyramids was very different.
Oh yes, the Egyptian’s loved stones and rocks like I do. They constructed the pyramids to be more than impressive in size and design… history has it that they went all out to be the rock kings of their time. The walls of the pyramids were paper white, smooth as glass and as the creme-de-la-creme they topped each monument with a golden capstone. Each construction would gleam in the desert sun, like a beacon as bright as any star. In Ancient Egypt - rocks rocked!
The reign of the rock kings was supreme for about 5,000 years until in 500 AD the Arabs invaded, probably green with rock envy and so the rock wars began. The Arabs stripped the limestone cladding and spirited it back to be recycled in Cairo. Yes folks, not only was this evidence of early rock envy but it was also early recycling.
Perhaps the ancient Egyptians knew about solar power panels and global warming.. and thought they could kill two birds with one stone by making their Pharaohs’ tomb practical as well as aesthetically symbolic. And when the Arab’s stole the technology in the first industrial deconstruction case, the Egyptians just chuckled up their flared sleeves at the Arab’s primitive understanding of rocks just being rocks for building no matter how shiny and bright. Who knows!
Don't believe me? Go and see, cos even today people travelling to Cairo, can still see some mosques and palaces harbouring hard evidence of ancient stone stealing.
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