1. The pyramids of Giza were originally white and shiny.
The Perception:
The Pyramids are marvels of ancient engineering. We admire their massive, layered golden bricks but forget we’re seeing only ruins. Freshly built, they looked entirely different—far more impressive than they appear today.
The Reality:
The Pyramids today are just the exposed layers of their structural base. Ancient Egyptians strongly valued afterlife rituals, adorning tombs with gold, utensils, and gemstones for comfort beyond this world. Pharaohs’ tombs, encased within the Pyramids, displayed extreme opulence, aiming to be the most dazzling structures.
Originally, smooth white limestone covered the staggered yellow limestone bricks, creating the illusion of a solid pyramid. Builders polished the Tura limestone casing to reflect sunlight, achieving astonishing precision—often within a hundredth of an inch.
Each Tura limestone block measured nearly five feet per side, weighing about 15 metric tons. Some original stones reached 40 metric tons. Workers cut and polished them at the final location to ensure perfect alignment with the Pyramid’s face.
How did they position so many massive stones so precisely? No one knows for sure. But with their gleaming limestone surfaces, the Pyramids likely shone like jewels, visible from miles away.
Why We Picture it Wrong:
Surviving nearly 5,000 years, the Pyramids have inspired amazement and folklore. Throughout history, artists depicted them in varying states of wear, reflecting what they saw. These structures endured sun, sandstorms, earthquakes, and human interference. What remains today are only worn-down remnants of their original form.
Many outer casing stones were removed and repurposed for nearby buildings. Bahri Sultan An-Nasir Nasir-ad-Din al-Hasan used some to construct mosques in Cairo, a few of which still stand. Worse, treasure hunters in the 19th and 20th centuries looted much of the Pyramids using pickaxes, knives, and even explosives.
Look closely at the base of the Pyramid of Khufu, and you might spot a few original casing stones still in place.
source–> todayifoundout
2. Jesus Looked Nothing Like the Paintings
His light eyes, sharp features, and long hair—straight out of a modern shampoo ad—make Jesus Christ instantly recognizable. More than half the world sees him this way.
It isn’t a modern-day phenomenon either, with Renaissance era paintings (like this illustration from Room of The Segnatura at the Vatican or Good Shepherd) exhibit :
The Reality:
As you can probably guess, Yeshua of Nazareth, the man Christians think of as “Jesus Christ” today, actually looked a lot more Middle Eastern seeing as he was… well… actually Middle Eastern.
Most scholastic texts agree that Jesus was like a ‘common man’, a fellow ‘brother’ to the mankind. Sure, he was the divine one, the chosen one, but he was also someone who led by example. And to be that, he needed to be ‘human’ and not look like someone concocted with magical potions of good looks and Caucasian skin color (something which was pretty synonymous with supposed racial supremacy for the Western world).
That’s just an artist rendering based on what the average person of the time and place Jesus actually came from looked like, but you get the idea.
Why We Picture it Wrong:
For Jesus’ image as a white man, blame Renaissance artists like Da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo. True to their artistic style, they painted him as a handsome Greek or Italian figure—easily recognizable to European Christians.
During the Crusades, the Church found it convenient not to remind people they were praying to a small, brown Jewish man.
Similarly, African and Arab Christians depicted Jesus with dark skin and curly hair, while artists in the Far East and Hispanic regions gave him local features. These versions helped believers relate to him more easily.
3. Velociraptors Had Feathers
The Perception:
If your idea of killer dinosaurs comes from old encyclopedia drawings—or the Spielberg classic Jurassic Park—you probably picture Velociraptors as terrifying, scaly predators that looked something like this.
The Reality:
They had feathers.
Almost—but not quite like birds. Velociraptors were smarter than many of their contemporaries, but what truly added to their eerie appeal (as if giant, intelligent lizards weren’t scary enough!) was their feathered bodies.
Since birds evolved from certain reptile species, this isn’t surprising. However, Velociraptors couldn’t fly. Their feathers acted more like a fuzzy outer layer, likely used for intimidation or mating displays.
Why We Picture it Wrong:
The truth is, we didn’t know until paleontologists at the American Museum of Natural History and the Field Museum made a groundbreaking discovery in 1998. They found evidence of quills in Raptors, proving they had feathers. This revelation came nearly half a decade after Spielberg shaped our childhood memories. Just saying…
4. Greek Statues Were Brightly Painted
The Perception:
Quick, what do you picture in your head when we say, “Ancient Greece”? If you’re like most people, you picture a muscular man with a weapon, dressed in a white robe and without pupils in his eyes.
The artists from Renaissance era carved many memorable statues from marbles, trying to mimic the ‘Greek’ style.
The Reality:
Archaeologists however, found enough proof in ancient scriptures, some even including illustrations of painting statues, to remain interested in knowing how widely colors were used in ancient Greek era. Modern laser-dating techniques have shown that the ornate marble structures were just the base models, which were then painted with bright primary colors by the Greek artists.
Why We Picture it Wrong:
Over time, the vibrant paint chipped away due to heat, humidity, and erosion. Later civilizations admired the simplicity of white marble, associating it with strength and purity rather than colorful decoration.
Seeing these sculptures in bare marble created a lasting impression of Greek statues as stark and powerful. Some modern thinkers even deemed it fitting that the founders of Western civilization celebrated art in white. This idea of pristine marble statues became deeply rooted in popular culture.
5. The Statue of Liberty is a modern version of the Colossus of Rhodes.
The Perception:
With a broken shackle at her feet, the famous Statue of Liberty is recognized worldwide. Often seen as a gift from France to America, it is widely believed to symbolize freedom from colonial oppression, especially with the American independence date inscribed on the pedestal.
The Reality:
The actual history of the statue is rather more than that. The statue of ‘Libertas’ or the Roman Goddess of Freedom, is actually modeled after the ancient Colossus of Rhodes.
The similarities don’t end there. The Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, stood guard over the Mandraki Harbor in Rhodes, Greece (depicted below).
The similarity doesn’t end there. Athe Colossus of Rhodes, one of the ‘ Seven Wonders of the Ancient World,’ oversaw the Mandraki Harbor in the city of Rhodes (Greece).
The Statue of Liberty was designed and built to the scale and design of the original Colossus of Rhodes (at least as it was believed to have looked at the time Liberty was constructed).
Left: The Colossus of Rhodes depicted in 1880; Right: Statue of Liberty
History of the statue
Beginning in 292 BC, Charles of Lindos and his team took nearly twelve years to complete the 110-foot statue, which stood atop a 50-foot pedestal. The base was carved from white marble and joined to the statue at the ankles. This statue was dedicated to the Greek God of the Sun, Helios (or Apollo), whose blessings were believed to have secured Rhodes’ victory over Cyprus in 305 BC.
The equipment from the defeated enemy was sold to fund the statue’s construction. It stood for over 50 years, earning fame among scholars and visitors from distant lands, until a devastating earthquake in 226 BC destroyed it. The dedication inscription on the statue, discovered later, spoke of a “statue leading to Olympus.”
While the Statue of Liberty is often associated with liberty and freedom, it is mostly viewed as a modern metaphor for America as the “land of opportunity” for immigrants. However, given its design inspiration from the Colossus of Rhodes, a renowned symbol of freedom in the ancient world, the Statue of Liberty owes much to the architectural and symbolic legacy of its predecessor.
Fotovolos Apollon. Ancient Corinth Museum.
Similar facial expression, seven beams of light in exact position with those in the Statue of Liberty, same dimensions…. Just a coincidence?
6. Nobody Dressed How You Think They Dressed
The Perception:
Given that much of historical data without illustrations is often speculative, we tend to imagine skilled fighters a certain way. Say the word “Ninja,” and you likely picture them in all-black uniforms, looking something like this:
Talk about Vikings and immediately a guy with a mighty mo’and horned headgear rides into our thought:
The Reality:
The art of being an assassin and skilled fighter lies in deception. It’s more about practical advantages on the battlefield than wearing attention-grabbing outfits. Ninja assassins were trained to track and eliminate targets, so they dressed like ordinary people—merchants, monks, shopkeepers, or farmers. If you were hunting down your prey, you wouldn’t want a “uniform” that screamed Ninja from a mile away, would you?
Even when ninjas moved in the dark, they often wore dark blue instead of black, as black would create a clear silhouette against the night.
As for the Viking helmet—would you really want to wear something on the battlefield that enemies can easily grab? Ever wonder why armed forces personnel around the world sport crew cuts instead of flowing hair like they’re from Lord of the Rings? Exactly. Viking helmets were designed to be practical, looking like any other protective headgear, not something to be grabbed in combat.
Why We Picture it Wrong:
The all-black Ninja outfit actually originated in theaters. During the Edo era, stagehands and prompters wore all-black to blend into the background. Directors decided that actors playing ninjas should wear the same attire to represent their stealth and ability to sneak undetected before leaping into action. This idea carried over into modern movie stereotypes.
As for Vikings, the “horned” warrior image was an exaggeration created by Roman and Greek historians about the northern invaders. Artists later picked up on this idea, illustrating it in a way that cemented the misconception.
7. Columbus didn’t Discover the Round Earth
Well, even if he did, he was nearly 2,000 years late.
There is documented proof that both Pythagoras of Samos (c. 570 – c. 495 BC) and Aristotle (384 – 322 BC) understood that the Earth was round. Aristotle even provided physical evidence, such as the lunar eclipse and the Earth’s curvature, which sailors had long observed when watching a ship disappear over the horizon.
Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276 BC – 195 BC), a Greek mathematician, geographer, and astronomer, is credited with accurately determining the Earth’s size, the tilt of its axis, and its distance from the sun, all backed by scientific calculations.
Why We Picture it Wrong:
So where did the false story about Europe laughing at Columbus and fearing his crew would “fall off the Earth” come from? The myth of Europeans believing in a “Flat Earth” is mostly propaganda, likely fueled by Washington Irving’s 1828 biography of Columbus, which is highly revisionist.
In reality, any educated European in Columbus’s time knew the Earth was round. The issue was that Columbus vastly underestimated the Earth’s circumference. He believed Europe was much wider than it actually was and disagreed with Ptolemy’s estimate of Asia’s size.
In the 18th century, America, still a relatively new country, was searching for national heroes. Free from English colonial influence, they distanced themselves from English figures of the past. Since Marco Polo had already explored Asia, they instead celebrated Columbus—a flawed mathematician working for Spain—as their hero.
For more info here
source–> cracked
44 comments
The pyramids were most definitely not tombs.
They were actually morgues.
launch pads
Just because the “middle eastern” appearance is now “arab” [Hebrew for “tending towards the dusky”] doesn’t mean Pilate’s letter to Caesar describing Jesus as tall, blonde, and having blue eyes is incorrect.
This letter from Pilate to Caeser, it exists? It is documented? It is available for examination?
The letter of Pontius Pilates to Caesar is another thing people picture incorrectly. There are no known letters from Pilate concerning Jesus written in the time Pilate lived.
According to publications that have reproduced massively throughout dozens of websites “this exciting manuscript regarding the decision to crucify Jesus Christ remained completely unknown until 1309 A.D., until it was found in the well-known earthquake city of L’Aquila in Central Italy (near which was discovered the ancient Roman town of Amiterno, where they found the home of Pontius Pilate).”
“In 1381 it was brought to Constantinople in the days of Patriarch Jeremiah. It was translated by His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Dionysios in the year 1643.”
The main source for the letters of Pilate come from W. P. Crozier’s 1928 book titled, “Letters of Pontius Pilate: Written During His Governorship of Judea to His Friend Seneca in Rome.” The book presents a fantastic novel (fiction) on the idea of what could have been written by Pilate regarding Jesus, based on the facts described in the Gospels.
You can find the book here: http://www.amazon.com/Letters-Pontius-Pilate-Written-Governorship/dp/1589639480
Internet users seeking answers regarding the reliability of the text of Pilate about Jesus, contacted the Library of Congress in the U.S., from whom they received the following answer:
“The Library of Congress has received a number of inquiries over the years about a purported letter from Pontius Pilate to Tiberius Caesar concerning Jesus Christ. The Library does not have such a letter in its collections”
Source: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/talk.origins/JVNhAoEEO24/h-sKvVmF3U0J
Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/index.html
What a fun post!! Love all that historical research. Nice to find your blog…
Amazing post. Very informative.
I wonder how these pyramids were made, each block used to make pyramids weigh around a 1000 ton or something. It’s humanly impossible to lift the and place it to such perfection. Humanly impossible I believe.
The Pyramids were actually cased in white, red, and black casing stones, and were definitely not tombs, not a single mummy has been found in the Great Pyramids EVER!
Cool
The terra cotta “army” of China’s first emperor were also painted and never appeared when they were first displayed in the soil colour we all know today. Some of the finish paint remains today, and scientists are trying to discover the secrets of the resins and paints that were used. Scholars are yet to discover though what the army was intended for. They still think it was to guard the emperor’s tomb (imagine!) but they were actually the emperor’s memorial to the end of war. His story is found in The Schoool of Sun Tzu: Winning Empires without War. Available from Amazon.
Unique blog.Best wishes.Jalal
I like pictures of pyramids and Colossus
It’s really very nice that you seek to educate. Why though must you sieze the chance to show how incredibly smart you are with condescending smart-ass writing? What’s worse is your PC stance of a racial motivation behind European depictions of Jesus when in all likelyhood, it was simply the result of a very human penchant to make things familiar. Don’t we see people as being bad enough already without your contribution to sullying our idea of one another, and of people of other times?
Arab peoples had not yet conquered Judea two thousand years ago. Culturally , the LEVANT was part of the Mediterranean world and people there looked more like modern day groups found throughout that world. In fact there is a lot of variation among Arab people too. Your image of Jesus is based on one skull reconstructed in a NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC article. Some people in ancient Judea might have looked like that, but a ‘norm?’… Hardly.. Philistine peoples (actually Minoans) were absorbed into the populace, as well as nomadic Celtic tribes (the Galatians) .. What we think of as the ethnic/cultural Mideast of today was, in Jesus’ time still over six hundred years in the future.. If we interpret things your way. we could just as likely say Ancient American Indian civilizations were built by Europeans, because you found a few European skulls.. thank you.
Regarding the pyrimids, there as NEVER any remains found in any of the three great pyrimids, just saying,…if you’re going to talk about misconceptions, you should probably mention that FACT,
You forgot your source.
http://www.cracked.com/article_18627_6-things-from-history-everyone-pictures-incorrectly.html
The source is at the end of the post. It has always been there but people see only what they WANT to see.
Btw columbus did not discover that the earth was round, Magellan did
Actually Magellan never made it all the way around the world because he was killed in the Philippines so I guess you must say it was his crew that proved the fact.
it had already proven or highly suspected at least for centuries earlier
(for those of you in the comment section) For those of you that are saying that there were no remains found in The Great Pyramids, you’re dead wrong. That’s where we find Pharaohs and their wives, as well as servants and sacrifices. The pyramids were tombs for the Pharaohs throughout the years, that’s why there are so many. The bricks weren’t 1000 tons either, they weren’t even 1. The Pharaohs woulds have millions of slaves start working on building on his pyramid from the moment his reign would start, if not before that.
As for the white Jesus misconception, you’re right, Jesus would have been closer to looking like any common Middle-Eastern man. By the way Middle Eastern and Arab are the same thing, just pointing that out. Anyway, to the person who wrote this, Michelangelo, Da Vinci , and Raphael didn’t give us the original inspiration for that picture of Jesus, an unknown British artists in the 1800s did; Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Raphael lived about 500 years apart. I can politely assure you no one was trying to be racist in making Jesus white. As you said, they were just going with what they knew, please don’t call him a whitey I found that very offensive. It may have just been me, but I don’t want you to think that people were being racist by keeping the picture, it’s just the only one we’ve ever had. Thank you! 🙂
(for those of you in the comment section) For those of you that are saying that there were no remains found in The Great Pyramids, you’re dead wrong. That’s where we find Pharaohs and their wives, as well as servants and sacrifices. The pyramids were tombs for the Pharaohs throughout the years, that’s why there are so many. The bricks weren’t 1000 tons either, they weren’t even 1. The Pharaohs woulds have millions of slaves start working on building on his pyramid from the moment his reign would start, if not before that. If you don’t believe me check out this website.
http://www.livescience.com/42902-giza-pyramids-port-discovered.html
As for the white Jesus misconception, you’re right, Jesus would have been closer to looking like any common Middle-Eastern man. By the way Middle Eastern and Arab are the same thing, just pointing that out. Anyway, to the person who wrote this, Michelangelo, Da Vinci , and Raphael didn’t give us the original inspiration for that picture of Jesus, an unknown British artists in the 1800s did; Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Raphael lived about 500 years apart. I can politely assure you no one was trying to be racist in making Jesus white. As you said, they were just going with what they knew, please don’t call him a whitey I found that very offensive. It may have just been me, but I don’t want you to think that people were being racist by keeping the picture, it’s just the only one we’ve ever had. Thank you! 🙂
In Spain archaeologists investigated Neolithic graves and found evidence that they were decorated with bright geometric designs. What we see now as interesting stone monoliths were covered in red and yellow zigzags.
This is great article thanks for sharing this
JESUS OF NAZARETH WAS BLACK
The reality is that we have the Shroud of Turin. The face on the shroud looks more like the painting on the right. If you care to guess at his complexion, google search for pictures of Israeli Jews, Assyrians, Turks, etc.. Either way, I think we ought to focus on trying to get his teachings right.
#4 reminded me of another place I learned recently that we picture incorrectly. Though the Incan settlement Mach Picchu is known today for its stonework, in the past many of its buildings were covered with plaster painted yellow and red!
https://lowellsilverman.wordpress.com/2015/12/18/inca-trails-end-machu-picchu/
I knew that the Parthenon friezes and other Greek statues were painted, but prefer them white. But I have no problem with Jesus looking Semitic, but isn’t there a prior question of whether he existed?
Wrong. The pyramids were, in order of smallest to largest… Red, Black, White.
http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Advanced_Concepts.htm
“What would you say about the people or culture who gave us the place-value system of numerals, the numerical zero, the trigonometric function “sine” and several trigonometric formulae, and set standards for mass, length, and time? What about those who developed a sophisticated system of medicine with its mind-body approach known as Ayurveda, detailed anatomical and surgical knowledge of the human body, metallurgical methods of extraction and purification of metals including the so called Damascus blade, chemical techniques to transform compounds, knowledge of various constellations and planetary motions that was good enough to assign motion to the Earth in the fifth century A.D. and the science of self-improvement (Yoga)?
Superb piece of writing! Great to expose all those myths.
Reblogged this on Opher's World and commented:
I found this a brilliant and interesting article. Enjoy.
Interesting post. A few things I didn’t know
Very cool post!
Glad to have found your blog. Interesting read!
wonder full story..
Great read – thanks for sharing!
Reblogged this on San Diego with RealtorPeg.
Evolution is a theory developed one hundred and forty years ago by Charles Darwin.
New species cannot evolve by natural selection. Modern scientific discoveries are proving evolution to be impossible. No new scientific discoveries have been found to support the Theory of Evolution.
Here are 5 Scientific Facts Prove the Theory of Evolution is False!
Interesting facts!
please see welvno.com
Precious Antiques are belongs to any civilization or time era . Actually antiques represent specific social values of their time.We can only determine social values to see that time antiques. Actually Antiques show culture and rare ceremonies of their time era. Rare old things also collections of rare thought and events.. During search and dugging we shock and also wondered to see these antiques . The antiques are really rare because they can not made again It is important that many nations carely deposite these antiques. We can see also many people in the society who collect the antiques with deep interest .These people are also called as. antiques collectors.
Jaspreet Singh
Well loli, the continuing incompetency of the Human Race to evolve past the destructive and self destructive instincts of our monkey ancestors, vividly displays the failings of evolution.
As we destroy the only biosphere in sight. I’m calling this result of human greed and stupidity, the Matricide. Obviously we are undeserving of boasting that we are Homo Sapient or Sentient. It would be much more accurate to designate our species as Homo Anthropophagus.
Thanks loli for demonstrating that truism.
Absolute rubbish, ill-researched and full of assumptions. Jesus was not a Jew – he was a Persian, as the Zoroastrian Kings, the Magi, came to seek one of them. Being a “whitey” has nothing to do with it. Arianism was only invented 300 years later in the Roman Empire, same place where they ran with the extreme Dualistic doctrine the Magi attempted to suppress (Manicheanism). And Jesus was GAY. So he could have been well groomed with lotions and potions, why not… The issue with the two depictions, one in which he is blond and blue-eyed, have to do with the Roman Empire’s conflation of Jesus with Yahwe/Zeus (the blond transsexual Greek dude – new incarnation as the Statue of Liberty) whom Jesus explained was his ultimate partner. They made Zeus “ultimate” (“one who is mysteriously three” magic) without the actual True Love element that Jesus promoted (which makes people into Gods a.k.a. Souls/Lightbody Transfiguration).
It doesn’t matter what race or colour , he is are saviour to all brothers and sisters of the world.God blesses all who has faith in are lord ! Believe